
NANTUCKET 



BY 



WILLIRn- ROOT- BLISS 



LIBRARY OF COMGRESS. 



Shelf ..v-iyilt>b 
1 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



iSoo&s bp OmtUtam Eoot mss. 



QUAINT NANTUCKET. Crown 8vo, 

gilt top, ;?i.5o. 
COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S 

BAY. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, gilt top, 

$1.50- 
THE OLD COLONY TOWN AND 

OTHER SKETCHES. Crown 8vo, 

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HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
Boston and Nbw York. 



Quaint Nantucket 

William Root Bliss 

Author of " Colonial Times 
on Buzzard's Bay " 




,:^ 



Boston and New York ':"■,;' fK^""^! 

Houghton, Mifflin and Company ^)^1^ ^ » ^ ' 

1896 



Copyright, 1896, 
By WILLIAM ROOT BLISS. 

All rights reserved. 



The Riverside Press, Camhridge, Mass. ,U. S. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. 



TO 

GERTRUDE MOORE RICHARDS 



This book relates to that quaint Natttucket 
which existed for two hundred years before the 
island was discovered by " the summer boarder^ 
The materials from zvJiich it has been written 
cojnprise the original town and court records, 
various letters, account books, sea-journals, and 
other private manuscripts, including the record 
books of the Qtiaker Society of Nantucket. None 
of these valuable materials have been used here- 
tofore for such a purpose. 

For assistance in procuring them, I am indebted 
to Mr. Henry B. Worth and to Captaift Thomas 
R. Rodman, of New Bedford; to many friends 
in Nantucket, a?id especially to Miss Helen Bar- 
nard Winsloiv Worth, whose kind services have 
been invaluable. 

Not oftejt does the tvorld hear from Nantucket 
— except, during summer tnonihs, while steam- 
boats from, the mainland are carrying pleasure- 
seekers to the island, and bringing thon away. 
Its history stopped nearly half a century ago; 

when 



VI 

wheti prosperity had departed, and new men and 
new manners began to take the places of the old. 
It is to preserve its former life from oblivioji that 
I have written the book. 

W. R. B. 

Greystones, Short Hills, 

Essex County, New Jersey. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Beginning of all Things . . . . i 
The Triumph of John Gardner ... 30 

The Nantucket Indian 54 

The Dominion of the Quakers • ■ • 73 
The Missionary from Boston . . . .111 
Sea-Journals and Sea-Rovers . . .129 

The Town's Doings 176 

Odds and Ends of Nantucket Life . . 192 
Nantucket's School of Philosophers . . 205 



Quaint Nantucket 



I 

The Beginning of All Things 

There is a tradition that, near the end 
of the year 1659, an open boat, containing 
two men, a woman, and six children, sailed 
away from the little village of Salisbury, on 
Merrimac River, bound to an island in 
the Atlantic Ocean, of which the voyagers 
knew nothing except that it was inhabited 
by Indians and their innumerable dogs. It 
was a circuitous voyage of nearly two hun- 
dred miles. The boat encountered tem- 
pestuous weather ; and the woman, alarmed 
for the safety of herself and children, be- 
sought her husband, who was master of the 
voyage, to turn about and go back to their 
home. Like the usual hero of a tradition, 
he spurned a woman's prayers, and contin- 
ued to drive the boat over a rugged sea until 



2 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

it reached a little harbor on the western 
shore of Nantucket. Yet this master, 
Thomas Macy by name, was not a seaman, 
but a weaver by trade, and his mate in 
navigating the boat was a yeoman. 

If the tradition is to be believed, these 
rustic mariners made themselves exiles 
from home, to be outcasts upon an island 
which was thirty miles distant from the 
mainland ; where none of the comforts of 
life existed, where wintry gales blew with 
a roar like the roar of iron-mills, and sea- 
fowl sometimes perished in a struggle for 
life. 

Midsummer — July i6, 1661 — is the 
earliest authentic date of the settlement 
of Englishmen on Nantucket. Then they 
were drawing lots for their homesteads. 
They had come from the frontier of the 
Massachusetts colony, where wolves, bears, 
and a stony soil made a farming life un- 
profitable. They looked upon their island 
estate as a vast farm securely fenced from 
wild beasts by the ocean. Its forests of 
oak, walnut, beech, pine, and cedar trees 
were ready to give timber for their houses ; 

its 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 3 

its creeks and marsh-lands were growing 
thatch for their roofs. There were springs 
of sweet water, whose overflows were gath- 
ered in many ponds; turf-covered downs 
blooming with heather; and a rich soil, 
scantily cultivated by Indians, who still 
possessed more than half of the island, and 
were squatting on that part of it which the 
Englishmen had bought. 

The first need of the colonists was an in- 
terpreter, through whom they might speak 
with their Indian neighbors. So they sent 
to the island of Martha's Vineyard, and 
offered to give a half of one share of their 
estate to Peter Foulger, if he would come 
over to Nantucket and live with them. 
Peter was an Englishman, a teacher to the 
Indians of the Vineyard, and he knew how 
to measure and survey lands. He accepted 
the compensation, and moved to Nan- 
tucket. By him the colonists published 
a proclamation in the Indian tongue that 
" Whatsoever Indians do stay on ye land 
after ye 14 day of October 1662 shall pay 
to ye English five shillings per weeke, at 
the end of every weeke." 

Then 



4 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Then four men of the company went 
abroad " to vew the land for laying out 
cornfields ; " and after corn had been 
planted, with an alewife in each hill, it was 
found necessary for the interpreter to pro- 
claim that " All Indians are to kill all their 
dogs, and if any dogs be found alive after 
ten days the owner shall pay to the English 
two shillings for every one." The Indians 
listened and stroked their dogs ; but time 
went on and the dogs were still alive, paw- 
ing up the tender crops. Then it was or- 
dered that a tax of " fourty shillings shall 
be pay'd to ye Constable by the one and 
twenty proprietors within a weeke " for the 
hire of men to kill the Indian dogs. 

Lot-layers laid out the land, and Peter 
Foulger surveyed it. A favorite section 
was that part of the purchase which is 
described in the records as " the old fields 
that were bought of the Indians on Nana- 
humake Neck." This was a picturesque 
peninsula in the western part of the island, 
surrounded on three sides by a lake, whose 
waters were separated from the south sea 
by a narrow beach, alternately opened and 

closed 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 5 

closed by the stupendous waves that broke 
upon it. The neck contained fresh mead- 
ows, through which a brook was running ; 
patches of white-oak trees ; and a great 
swamp skirted by cranberry vines. One 
and twenty lots were laid out in this attrac- 
tive region ; and an order was made that 
" no English man shall give liberty to any 
Indian to dwell on Nanahumake or to 
plant Indian corne there," and no person 
" shall fall any timber within its consider- 
able woodland." 

Thomas Macy was engaged " to supply 
the yland in the trade of weaveing," for 
which he was given a half of one share 
in the estate. Afterwards the proprietors 
gave a like interest to William Worth, to 
Joseph Coleman, and to Richard Gardner, 
on condition that they serve the colony as 
seamen ; to Eleazer Foulger, son of Peter, 
on condition that he " supply ye occasion 
of ye yland in ye trade of a Smith ; " to 
Nathaniel Holland, on condition that he 
" employ himself as a taylor for ye benefit 
of ye inhabitants ; " to Joseph Gardner, on 
condition that he supply their wants " as a 

Shoomaker ; " 



6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Shoomaker;" to John Savidge, on condi- 
tion that " he stay and follow his trade as 
a Cooper." 

The proprietors had now so much busi- 
ness to be recorded, concerning lands and 
legislation, that they agreed to pay to their 
" dark for his wages Twenty Shillings per 
annum," with two years' back pay. Al- 
though they possessed no incorporated 
authority, they were already a town, whose 
right to make laws for governing all the 
inhabitants of the island rested on the fact 
that a majority of the townsmen were own- 
ers of the soil. No inhabitants except land- 
owners were allowed to vote in the town 
meetings. They elected a constable, and 
they set up a police court ; they issued 
licenses " to trade on the yland," and they 
prohibited unlicensed traders from land- 
ing. They appointed " Surveighers of the 
fences." They chose inspectors of high- 
ways, and gave to them power to call out 
the inhabitants to construct roads " as they 
se occasion," and "to fine any man not 
appearing on the day they appoint two 
shillings and six pence." At Wescoe, 

" under 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 7 

"under ye high Clift at ye mouth of ye 
Harbour," they built a tide-mill for grind- 
ing " the townes corne." Peter Foulger 
was the miller, and his multure was to be 
" two quarts for every bushel he grindeth." 
Near the mill was a landing place at which 
vessels were moored, as I know from an 
item in the records of the island court, 
which says that, an Indian " being com- 
playned of for stealling toe tarkees " (two 
turkeys), " he owened he sold them on bord 
a vessell at Wescoe." 

In June, 1665, a description was written, 
in a book, of the earmarks registered by 
forty-eight owners of herds and flocks then 
pasturing on the commons. It may be 
supposed that these herdsmen and their 
families constituted the English popula- 
tion of Nantucket at that time. In the 
same year, " a publike meeting of the 
towne " was convened to receive the sa- 
chem " Attapehat with all the Tomoko- 
noth Indians," who then acknowledged 
"ye English government of Nantucket," 
and did " owne them selves subjects to 
King Charles the Second." This cere- 
mony 



8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

mony was done in presence of the famous 
sachem of Mount Hope, who was known 
to the Enghsh as King PhiHp. 

As the farmers continued to be troubled 
by an increase of the dog population, the 
town ordered, in February, 1667, that 
" Every Indian shall kill his dogs before 
the loth of March," or pay ten shillings 
for each dog found alive after that day. 
To insure the death of the dogs, two Eng- 
lishmen and two Indians were appointed 
to collect and divide between themselves 
the fines. Then the wanton destruction of 
trees by Englishmen and Indians became, 
and was for years, a subject of legislation 
by the town. It was forbidden " to fall any 
more timber for rails and posts ; " and no 
" timber for building bowses at any time of 
ye yeare " was allowed to be felled, " except 
it be in May and the two first weekes 
in June." When the English came, the 
peninsula of Coatue, which is on the north 
side of the island, was densely covered with 
pines and cedars ; and there Indians gath- 
ered firewood, claiming it by rights derived 
from their sachems. As the trees were a 

shelter 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 9 

shelter to English sheep when northeast 
storms descended upon the island, a town 
meeting declared the " neasesitie of pre- 
serving ye Seaders & pines & other groaths 
that are there, for ye Sucker of their Sheep 
in hard seasons; " and at last an order was 
issued " to stop ye Cutting of any more 
Wood of any sort off from Coatue." 

The commons were stinted, lest, by con- 
tinual grazing, the grass be destroyed. 
Men were sent out to enforce the stint; 
and when they found Thomas Tray's 
horses grazing " contrary to ye towne 
order," Thomas Tray was fined thirty shil- 
lings, which amount was cut down, at his 
earnest request, to fifteen shillings, " on 
condition that he pay'd readily." As he 
paid neither readily nor in any other 
way, one of his mares was taken for the 
fine. 

Horses and goats were increasing so 
rapidly, and consuming the limited pas- 
turage of the island, that a town meeting 
in the year 1669 said: "Horses are like 
to be the ruine of our neat cattel & the 
multitude of goats is very hurtful." It 

was 



lO QUAINT NANTUCKET 

was agreed that something must be done 
" about cleering the yland " of these ani- 
mals, and an order was issued, which the 
people said " shall stand unalterable," " that 
all horses shall be taken off the yland or 
be destroyed before the last of November 
next, except one to every horse keepe ; " 
and " that two yeeres time shall be allowed 
to men to abate their goats." 

There was a bargain made " to set up a 
pound fouer rod square," and the record 
of the bargain says : " Stephen Coffin is 
to keep the pound when once there is a 
lock to it and he is to have two pence a 
time for turning the key for any cattel that 
come." Payments for making the pound 
were to be " in corne butter or cheese after 
the next harvest." The " general prises " 
of Indian corn were fixed ; and, to prevent 
a competition between sellers, a large fine 
was decreed as the penalty for selling at 
other prices, " except for money or cotton 
wool." Wreck commissioners were ap- 
pointed, and Indians were notified " to 
bring intelligence about all wracke goods 
found on the shore on any part of the 

yland ; " 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS ii 

yland ; " such goods, if not perishable, to 
be kept " a yeere and a day before they are 
disposed of." Then a reward of thirty 
shillings was offered to " whosoever shall 
kill the wild dog within a weeke." It was 
described as a white dog, a ghost-like wan- 
derer, mentioned in the records as " haveing 
bin scene several yeere about the towne;" 
whose mysterious existence was talked of 
in town meeting, where it was condemned 
as guilty of destroying many sheep. 

In the year 1668, the English made "a 
bargaine with ye Indians concerning all 
whales" that shall drift to the shores of 
the island. Subsequently the shores were 
divided into sections, over which sachems 
were appointed to oversee the cutting up 
of stranded whales and to divide the shares. 
This business produced quarrels between 
the claimants of a whale, and appeals were 
made to the island court ; as when " the 
Court do order that the Rack or drift 
Whale in the bounds of the bech upon 
the playnes shall be divided into eight 
shares," and that "No Rack Whale that 
com ashore in any sachims bounds shall 

be 



12 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

be cut up until all the masters of the 
shares that belong to that Whale do com 
together." Sometimes the court went into 
particulars, as when it ordered " that Wa- 
shaman is to have the head of the drift 
Whale for his share and Desper is to have 
halfe along with him." A jury of six men 
tried a complaint of the Indian " Massaquat 
against Eleaser Foulger for stealing his 
Whale ; " the defendant confessed that he 
" did dispose of the Whale in controversie," 
and the court adjudged him " to pay for 
the Whale the summe of four pounds in 
goods at the usual price of trading." 

The island of Nantucket was within the 
limits of the province of New York, which, 
as New Netherlands, had been taken by 
the English from the Dutch in the year 
1664. Six years later the English governor 
summoned the inhabitants of the island to 
appear before him and show the papers by 
which they claimed possession of it. 

The story of their claims begins in the 
year 1635, when the Earl of Stirling, sec- 
retary of the Kingdom of Scotland, became 
owner of all the islands adjacent to the 

coast 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 13 

coast of New England. The Earl ap- 
pointed James Forrett to be his agent for 
selling and settling the islands between 
Cape Cod and Hudson River. Forrett 
came over the sea, and in the year 1641, 
for the sum of ^40, sold conditionally the 
island of Nantucket to Thomas Mayhew, of 
Watertown, in the Massachusetts colony, 
and to his son Thomas, who was a preacher 
to Indians on the island of Martha's Vine- 
yard. Before the sale had been completed 
Forrett was called suddenly to England, 
and Andries Forrester came over the sea 
as the agent of the Earl of Stirling. He 
made promises of a settlement of the title 
to the Mayhews, but on a visit to New 
Netherlands he was arrested by the Dutch 
and sent as a prisoner to Holland, whence 
he never returned. The Earl of Stirling 
died; and, in the year 1663, James the 
Duke of York bought of the succeeding 
Earl of Stirling his American estate, which 
included the island of Nantucket. In the 
mean time, that is in the year 1659, — the 
date named in the tradition, — Thomas 
Mayhew (his son being dead) effected a 

sale 



14 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

sale of nine tenths of his interest to nine 
Englishmen of the Massachusetts colony, 
reserving one tenth to himself. Each of 
these partners in the property admitted 
another to an equal share of it; and in 
March, 1660, they made a first purchase of 
land from the Indians of Nantucket. 

The summons of Governor Lovelace of 
New York was not expected by the Eng- 
lishmen, who for eight or nine years had 
held a quiet possession of the island, and 
had ruled it as an independent state. They 
were men of strong minds, accustomed to 
deal with the realities of life, and their vo- 
luminous writings show that they were men 
of as fair an education as was to be found 
at that time in any English community. 
Prominent among them was Tristram Cof- 
fin, a Devonshire man, who came to Amer- 
ica in the year 1642, who had been an inn- 
keeper and a political officer at Salisbury, in 
the Massachusetts colony, whence he mi- 
grated with his family to Nantucket. He 
was now sixty years old ; a man of positive 
opinions, and of an experience which fitted 
him to take a lead in public affairs. The 

numerous 



THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 15 

numerous members of his family chose 
" our father Tristram " to answer for them, 
to the governor, while other freeholders 
chose Thomas Macy, and asked " Mr. Cof- 
fin to help him." Then a tax was levied 
on all to pay " the charge of the voyage to 
New York." 

These men were summoned to submit 
their claims to the governor within four 
months from May, 1670. But they re- 
quired a long time for preparation, and 
they did not reach New York until June, 
1 67 1. Governor Lovelace confirmed them 
and their associates in possession of " the 
Island called Nantuckett, that is to say so 
much thereof as hath by them made pur- 
chase of," and he approved their plan for 
establishing a regular form of government. 
This act constituted the first charter of 
Nantucket, which is to have a chief mag- 
istrate, who is to be annually selected by 
the governor of the Province from two 
nominations made by the islanders. They 
are to elect annually two assistant magis- 
trates and all their inferior officers. They 
are to join with the people of Martha's 

Vineyard 



l6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Vineyard island in keeping a General 
Court, to consist of the chief magistrate of 
each island and four assistants. The Gen- 
eral Court is to make all " peculiar lawes " 
that may be needed, not repugnant to the 
laws of England, and subject to the gov- 
ernor's approval. There are to be " private 
courts," consisting of the chief magistrate 
of Nantucket and two assistants, to deter- 
mine cases of small value ; while cases of 
a value from five to fifty pounds are to be 
determined by the General Court, and cases 
exceeding that value are to be sent to the 
assizes at New York. The private courts 
are to inflict punishments " soe farre as 
Whipping Stocks and Pilloring or other 
Public Shame," but great criminals are 
to be sent to New York for trial ; and the 
Indians of the island are to be governed 
according " to the best discretions " of the 
English, " soe farre as Life is not con- 
cerned." 

When Tristram Coffin and Thomas 
Macy left the governor to return to Nan- 
tucket, they carried his " Orders and In- 
structions for the well governing of the 

Place." 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 17 

Place." They also carried the commis- 
sion of " Tristram Coffin to be the Chiefe 
Magistrate of ye Island until ye 13th Day 
of October which shall be in yeare of our 
Lord 1672 when a new Magistrate is to 
enter into the Employment." As Thomas 
Macy had received neither honor nor profit 
from the expedition, the town voted, four 
months after his return, " that Tho Macy 
shall have for his time to New Yorke five 
pounds." 

Selectmen were now chosen for the first 
time ; their names, as written in the book, 
were " M"" Edward Starbuck John Swayne 
M-- John Gardner M"" Coffin and William 
Worth." Their authority was defined in 
these words : " And the major part of those 
Select Men shal act in al things that ar 
Committed to them in writing by the Towne 
from year to year." They were directed 
to give first attention to agricultural affairs, 
especially, " concerning bearding of Cattel 
& horses also to Judg of fences and the 
Stray of Cattel & horses that m.ay be among 
the Indians." They were authorized " to 
make Rates for the Towne ; " to pay the 

constable 



l8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

constable " for his time " in warning town 
meetings, but with the understanding that 
he is to " serve frely in any busenes that 
concernes the King." The selectmen were 
directed to contract with William Bunker 
" to build a corne mill." He is " to git her 
going" by the first day of May, 1673, and 
is to be paid "fourty pounds in grayn 
one third in wheat one third in barley & 
one third in Indian Corne." Edward Star- 
buck, John Swayne, Nathaniel Starbuck, 
and William Worth are to " make a pair of 
milstones & bring them to ye mill & when 
they have finisht them they are to bring 
into ye towne a true accompt ; " for their 
labor they are to be paid " two shillings & 
six pence a day in corne at harvest." Elea- 
zer Foulger, the blacksmith, is to be paid 
" for making of the tooles " for cutting the 
millstones. All these details were written 
in the town book with a particularity show- 
ing their great importance to the islanders. 
The farmers were then required to " sow 
two bushels of hay seed upon every halfe 
an Aker by the end of March," or to pay 
a penalty of five shillings each. A public 

harrow 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 19 

harrow was bought, " and M"" Coffin and 
M' Macy," so the record says, " is to see 
that every man do sow his seed ; " and all 
goats are to be killed by the end of Decem- 
ber, or transported so " that no more goats 
may be kept on the Island from hence- 
forth." Peace and contentment reigned 
when the new administration began its life ; 
but evil days were close at hand. 

In addition to the tradesmen and sea- 
men, already mentioned, to whom an inter- 
est in the island estate had been given for 
their services, the proprietors gave to John 
Gardner, a mariner of Salem, a half of a 
share on condition that he come to Nan- 
tucket " to inhabit and to sett up the trade 
of ffishing with a sufficient vessel fitt for 
the taking of Codd ffish." 

At the time of his coming to the island 
he was considered to be a man of impor- 
tance ; for the town granted to him " lib- 
erty to set a house upon the hy way at 
Wescoe going down to the landing place," 
and the highway was made " so much the 
broader " for his convenience. The town 
also gave to him " twenty acres of upland 

joining 



20 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

joining to his houselot towards the Cliff 
behind his house." 

The admission of these half-share men 
as partners in the estate caused disorders 
which, in the course of time, divided the 
community in two opposing factions. One, 
under the lead of Tristram Coffin, repre- 
sented a continuance of all things as they 
were at the beginning. The other, under 
the lead of John Gardner, represented 
equal rights for all the English inhabitants 
of Nantucket. Their quarrels enlisted the 
entire population of the island, and con- 
tinued with varying severity for many 
years, as this narrative will show. 

The quit -rent of Nantucket, payable 
yearly to the governor at New York, was 
eight barrels of codfish. There were two 
quit -rents due, and in the year 1672 "the 
towne did chuse M' Richard Gardner to 
Carrey the fish to New Yorke and to act as 
Agent in such busines as shal be exprest 
in the Selectmens order." One item of 
this business was to present " to the Gov- 
ernour of New Yorke M' Edward Starbuck 
and M' Richard Gardner ther names that 

he 



THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 21 

he may Apoynt one of them for Chiefe 
Magestrat for the year Insuing," in suc- 
cession to Tristram Coffin. 

They were a slow-moving people, with a 
habit of "waiting for the tide." Richard 
Gardner waited, and did not depart for 
New York until March, 1673. He de- 
livered to Governor Lovelace the quit-rent 
of codfish ; and, having finished the other 
business for which he came, he set sail for 
Nantucket. There were no buoys nor 
lights to guide a navigator through the 
intricate channels leading from Fort James 
into Long Island Sound ; and I may im- 
agine that his sloop was carried by a cur- 
rent upon the shoals of Corlear's Hook ; 
that he threw out an anchor and warped 
her off; that a flood tide in Hell Gate 
compelled him to put back and anchor 
near Barrent's Island ; that next day a 
northwester carried him safely through 
the Gate, but, meeting an east wind at the 
White Stone, he anchored and sent his 
boat ashore for water. The third morning, 
on a fresh westerly wind, with his topsail 
lowered and a reef in his mainsail, he re- 
sumed 



22 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

sumed the voyage, and late in the after- 
noon he was off New Haven. During 
the night he found Falkner's Island close 
aboard, and he tacked ship just in time to 
escape the rocks. The next day he passed 
through Plumb Gatte with a spanking 
breeze, and, running south of Neman's 
Land, he made Nantucket before sundown. 
He brought home several important 
papers from the governor. One was his 
own commission as chief magistrate of 
Nantucket; one was the commission of 
John Gardner as captain of the military 
company ; another was " Additional Direc- 
tions for the Government of the Island," 
which declared that all the " Ancient and 
Obsolete Deeds grants or conveyances of 
Lands on the Island shall be esteemed 
of no Force or Validity, but every ones 
Clayme shall bear Date from the first 
Divulging of the Patent by Authority of 
his Royall Highnesse." He also brought 
a license issued to Captain John Gardner 
and himself "to buy some Land by the 
Sea Side or else where of the Indyan 
Natives." He brought three constable 

staffs, 



THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 23 

staffs, having the king's arms on them ; 
and a decree, dated April i8, 1673, that the 
town 

Shall henceforth bee called and dis- 
tinguished in all Deeds Records and 
Writings by the Name of the Towne 
of Sherborne upon the Island of Nan- 
tucket. 

After Richard Gardner had moored 
his sloop at the landing-place, and had 
doled the news to one after another of his 
townsmen, everybody saw that he had done 
a large stroke of business while in New 
York with the codfish ; but some time 
elapsed before everybody understood how 
great was its importance. At last some 
of the freeholders concluded that their 
rights had been violated by the decree 
making invalid their deeds derived from 
Thomas Mayhew and the Indian sachems, 
and also by the governor's license to John 
and Richard Gardner — new-comers — to 
buy land from the Indians. For in the year 
1659 the original proprietors held a meet- 
ing at Salisbury, and made an order " that 
no man whatsoever shall purchase any 

land 



24 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

land of any of the Indians upon the yland 
for his owne or other private use ; " that 
every purchase " shall be for ye generall 
accompt ; " and it was agreed that this 
order shall stand inviolable, as being " ne- 
cessary to the continuance of the well being 
of the place." 

The half-share men, being now in con- 
trol of the government, proceeded to trans- 
act the public business with energy. They 
imposed a fine on " negligent parsons " 
who are " wel and on the Hand," if they 
come not to town meetings " within an 
hour after the time of meeting appointed." 
Fines were fixed for those persons who 
" shal turbulently and disorderly behave in 
the time of meeting after Silence being 
called by the moderator," and it was ordered 
that " thirteen persons being met at the 
place appointed shall be a town meeting." 

As the raising of sheep had become the 
principal industry on the island, the new 
government took " into serious considera- 
tion the great benefit of keeping Sheepe 
and the great damag that com thereto by 
dogs destroying lambs ; " and, as attempts 

to 



THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 25 

to destroy the dogs had been unsuccessful, 
a law was made that " all dogs more than 
foure months old shall wear a sufficent 
mussel that will keep them from biting." 
Even in an Indian heart there was love 
for a dog ; and this love, which had pre- 
served the native dogs from destruction, 
was at last recognized by the English in 
this humane law which allowed the dogs 
to live. 

At this time England was at war with 
Holland, and a Dutch fleet sailed into 
New York harbor, landed eight hundred 
armed men, captured the province, and 
brought Nantucket under the rule of the 
Dutch. Their loyalty to the victorious 
flag was soon put to a test by the strand- 
ing of a Dutch ship on the north point of 
the island. Isaac Melyne, claiming to be 
owner and master of the ship, and also to 
be an Englishman, came ashore and made 
a petition to the " Worshipfull Governour 
& Chiefe Magestrate of this his Majesties 
Island," saying " that upon the 30th day 
of July 1673 the dutch fleet did arrive at 
his majestyes port of New York and then 

did 



26 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

did take the place and brought it under the 
obedience of the States of Holland ; " that 
on the first day of August he " fled with his 
ship for New England and was pursued 
with three pinances and armed men and 
brought back to New York where they 
felloniously Robbed and Ranged his ship 
and goods." The Dutch then freighted 
his ship to go to Holland with " 90 barrels 
of whale oyle 83 hhds of Tobacco 473 
peces of Logwood 1 50 cowhides ; " and 
now, said the petitioner, "the foreseeing 
providence of god has brought him to this 
his majesties Island, with the loss of masts, 
sayles, rigging, furniture, which your wor- 
ships hereby may perceive." He offered 
a letter from Governor Lovelace, dated in 
the year 1669, certifying that Isaac Melyne 
was an inhabitant and also " a free denizen " 
of New York. 

His petition was referred to the island 
court to be held on the 20th of October, 
1673. To this court he testified " that the 
ship was his own proper goods and himself 
a free dennison of his majesty the King of 
England." His testimony was confirmed 

by 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 27 

by " the boson of the ship," and by his own 
body-servant, who said that Captain Melyne 
had been master of the ship for three years, 
" and never out of her." He claimed judg- 
ment against the ship because she had been 
" taken from him by the States of Holland." 
The case was committed to a jury of six 
men of Nantucket, who, not forgetting that 
they had become Dutchmen, rendered this 
verdict : — 

We doe not find he is a subject to the 

King of England, and concerning the 

ship we doe not find it is his. 

The Dutch governor at New York, hear- 
ing of the accident and not knowing the 
loyal verdict of the island court, ordered an 
armed vessel " to proceed with all speed to 
the cape of Nantucket," and bring away the 
stranded ship and crew. On return of this 
vessel its captain reported that the ship 
had been hauled off the Rip, and taken 
to Boston by an armed brigantine sailing 
under a commission from the King of Eng- 
land ; and that he, in retaliation for this 
act, had captured and brought to New York 
four Massachusetts ketches with cargoes. 

One 



28 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

One of these was bound to Nantucket, 
loaded with rum, sugar, salt, and wine, be- 
longing to James Coffin, who was on board. 
The governor immediately confiscated the 
vessels with their cargoes, and sent James 
Coffin and the captured crews to New Eng- 
land. 

During the war between England and 
Holland, the half-share men of Nantucket 
were encouraged to claim an equality in 
all the rights of the original proprietors. 
When they heard " the news that Yorke 
was taken by the Dutch," wrote Thomas 
Mayhew, they said : " Noe Man had a 
Right to a Foot of Land before the Date 
of the last Charter, and they by the Book 
endeavour to dethrone our Libertys — an- 
nouncing my Right obtained from the 
Earle of Stirlinge nothing, also the Indian 
Right nothing, my quiett Occupation there 
of 29 yeares nothing, the Grounding of 
the ten Partners upon my first Graunt 
nothing." 

The war with Holland was ended by 
a treaty of peace restoring New York to 

England ; 



THE BEGINNING OP ALL THINGS 29 

England; and in November, 1674, Sir 
Edmund Andros became governor of the 
province. But the half-share men of Nan- 
tucket remained firm in their purpose to 
carry on the revolution. 



II 

The Triumph of John Gardner 

While yet the Dutch were in New York 
the freeholders of Nantucket held a town 
meeting, " and did vote to send to the Gov- 
ernour at the next convenant season to 
petition about what may Infringe the Lib- 
ertyes of the Chartar." When John Gard- 
ner was nominated and " chosen to go to 
New Yorke " about the business, the meet- 
ing was in an uproar. Immediately, as the 
record says, — 

M' Tristram Coffin enters his disent 
John Swayne enters his disent 
Nathaniel Starbuck enters his disent 
Richard Swayne enters his disent 
Nathaniel Barnard enters his disent 
John Coffin enters his disent 
Steven Coffin enters his disent 
Nathaniel Wier enters his disent. 
By this action the lines were publicly 
drawn between the old and the new pro- 
prietors. 



THE TRIUMPH OF JOHN GARDNER 31 

prietors. The latter were to windward of 
their opponents, and Captain John Gard- 
ner knew the value of that position. In 
due time a letter to the governor was writ- 
ten, and signed by Richard Gardner, Ed- 
ward Starbuck, Thomas Macy, and William 
Worth, prominent citizens of the town, on 
behalf of the inhabitants, and then *' the 
Town did vote that the Letter drawn up 
to be sent to the Governour of New Yorke 
shall be forthwith sent." To this, as be- 
fore, — 

M"" Tristram CofHn enters his disent 
John Swayn enters his disent 
Nathaniel Barnard enters his disent 
John Coffin enters his disent 
Richard Swayn enters his disent 
Steven Coffin enters his disent. 
The town also voted " that Peter ffoul- 
ger should go to New Yorke with Cap- 
taine Gardner to assist him in any business 
that he is sent about by the Towne to the 
Governour." This vote was resisted, like 
the others, by Tristram Coffin and his band 
of followers. 

It now became necessary for the dissent- 
ers 



32 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

ers to be represented before the governor. 
Thirteen freeholders engaged to pay the 
expenses of sending two men; and they 
selected '^ M' Matthew Mayhew for one, 
also M' Tristram Coffin Sen'' and Major 
Robert Pike, or any two of them in case of 
any Providence preventing." They pre- 
pared a statement of their land titles, a 
copy of the Indian deed of the year 1660, 
and an account of all sales and transfers of 
land on the island since that year. These 
were to be submitted to the governor. 
When everything had been prepared that 
could influence him to revoke the decree of 
his predecessor respecting their "ancient 
and obsolete deeds," Tristram Coffin and 
Matthew Mayhew sailed for New York, 
where they landed in April, 1675, and pre- 
sented to Governor Andros their humble 
petition. It was inscribed as made " in 
Behalf of the Major Part of the first Pur- 
chasers, Freeholders uppon the Island of 
Nantuckett." Its complaint was that by the 
acts of the half-share men, now in power, 
"the first Purchasers have been damnified 
to the value of some hundred of Pounds ; " 

that 



THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 33 

that they, the petitioners, " are not suffered 
to act in the Disposal of their Landes ; " 
that the " Tradesmen and Seamen with 
some of the Purchasers being the Major 
part of the Island in Persones have elected 
into Authoritie some of themselves whereby 
they have presumed to dispose of our Pur- 
chase, deviding it one among another." 
The petitioners prayed for " a Process 
against the said Intruders," quaintly saying 
of them, " Every Card they play is an Ace 
and every Ace a Trump." 

The next day John Gardner and Peter 
Foulger appeared at Fort James. They 
gave to Governor Andros the letter of the 
inhabitants of Nantucket, expressing their 
" Real and hearty Welcome as our Govern- 
our, which is to us as a rising Sun after a 
dark and stormy Night," and assuring him 
that their messengers " will give full Satis- 
faction and Information in whose mouths 
will not be found a false Tongue." The 
town's letter was accompanied by one from 
the messengers, in which they expressed a 
belief " that very false Things " had been 
suggested to the governor, " upon selfish 

and 



34 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

and sinister ends," by the two townsmen 
who were in his presence yesterday. 

The difference in the motives of the 
opposing parties is shown by their position 
before the governor. On the one side was 
conservatism, selfishness, and a disregard 
of the rights of neighbors. On the other 
side was progress, loyalty, and desires for 
the general welfare of all the inhabitants 
of Nantucket. Both were courteously re- 
ceived, their statements were heard, and 
they were dismissed by the governor with- 
out any recorded result except some new 
instructions " for establishing of Courts ; " 
his action followed later. 

Soon after the return of these men to 
Nantucket came the outbreak of King 
Philip's War. Fearing that Indians would 
cross over from the mainland and extin- 
guish the colony, a letter was sent to Gov- 
ernor Andros stating that there were not 
more than thirty Englishmen on the island 
" capable of bearing Armes," while there 
were of " ye Indyans 5 or 600 men ; " and 
asking for " a couple of great Guns and 
halfe a Dousen Soulders." The governor 

sent 



THE TRIUMPH OF JOHN GARDNER 35 

sent a great gun, ten muskets, a barrel 
of powder, and three skeins of match. 
Captain Lee, of the sloop carrying these 
supplies, was instructed not to stay at Nan- 
tucket " above one Tyde unles it may hap- 
pen that the Indyans should flock over 
from the Maine and the Chiefe Magistrate 
desire yr Assistance for obstructing the 
same by water." A council of war was 
formed in the town, and it was ordered that 
" no parson shall furnish any Indian with 
powder or shot or any Instrument of war ; " 
that " whatever parson shall sell or give 
any horse mare or Gelding to any Indian " 
shall forfeit five pounds in silver ; and that 
no Indian corn shall be exported except to 
New York. These precautions were not 
needed, for the Nantucket Indians showed 
no sign of hostility. On the contrary, it 
is recorded that some of them " did come 
to the Court and did disown Philino, and 
did freely subject themselves to King 
Charles the Second." In their simplicity 
they brought guns and a cow to the Court, 
and left them " as a Testimony of their 
fidelity to the English." 

The 



36 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

The Indian war in New England caused 
many adventurers to fly to Nantucket for 
safety, some of whom became active in the 
political affairs of the island, and made 
trouble for the magistrates. Ten men re- 
cently landed attempted " to deliver a man 
by force " from the constable. One of 
these, named Edward Bennit, was fined 
ten pounds, put in chains, and was con- 
demned " to Remayne in Chaynes unless 
he can prevayle with M"" James Cofifin to 
tak him aboard the vessal and be bound 
for him." This action of the court seems 
to imply that the men had been imported 
by James CofBn and were heelers of the 
Coffin party. His brother, Peter Coffin, 
a resident of Salisbury, had fled to Nan- 
tucket in fear of the war, and had been 
nominated by the Coffinites as a candidate 
for the office of assistant magistrate of the 
island. The election was as boisterous as 
one of modern times. Peter Foulger, of 
the Gardner party, thus describes it : — 
There came hither from Puscattaway 
M' Peter Coffin and some others to stay 
here this Winter for fear of the Indians. 

Then 



THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 37 

Then another Meeting was called to 
chuse new Assistants. We knowing 
that we should be out voted sat still and 
voted not. The first man that was 
chosen was Peter Coffin. Stephen Hus- 
sey was the man that carried on the 
Designe in such a rude manner as this 
— Com Sirs, let 's chuse Peter Cofiin he 
will be here but a month or two and 
then we shall have tenn Pound fine of 
him. ... In the like uncivil manner they 
chose two young men more, the sayd 
Stephen bringing his corn which beto- 
ken Choice in his hand and called upon 
others to Corn this man and that man.^ 
Thomas Macy, the chief magistrate, and 
heretofore a follower of John Gardner, now 
faced about and whipped over to the other 
side. Some of his relations followed his 
example. These events gave a majority 

to 

1 It was a general custom to use corn and beans for ballots. 
In the Massachusetts Colony, A. D. 1643, " I* '^ ordered that 
for the yearly chosing of Assistants the freemen shall use 
Indian Corn and Beanes, the Indian Corn to manifest Election, 
the Beanes contrary ; and if any freeman shall put in more than 
one Indian corn or Beane he shall forfeit for every such offence 
Ten Pounds." 



38 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

to the Coffin party, which now took posses- 
sion of the government. In town meeting 
they appointed a committee to " view the 
town book," as they suspected that its writ- 
ings had been tampered with, and they 
desired the committee to report promptly 
"How they find it: "they ordered three 
loads of posts to be set up " on the playne 
in convenient places for cattel to rub 
against ; " and then they undertook to make 
their opponents as uncomfortable as possi- 
ble by voting, in words which reveal the 
thought of Tristram Coffin : — 

Whareas Capt. John Gardner was cho- 
sen to goe to New Yorcke to negoci- 
ate about som publicke conserns of the 
Hand and peter foulger chossen to assist 
hem — the towne doth now revoack the 
orders aforesaid and doe forbid the said 
Capt. Gardner and petter foulger to 
medal at all hence forward in any of the 
towns Consernes ether at Yorcke or elce 
whare under any colour or pretence what 
so ever. 

John Gardner wrote to the governor 
concerning the situation and said : — 



THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 39 

M' Macy and his Relations now joine 
with that Party and sum Persons now 
come out of the Bay as Sojourners for a 
Time by Reson of the Indian War. So 
they now haveing the biger Party hear 
mould all Things after ther Plesuer. 
And Peter Foulger, writing to the gov- 
ernor in regard to the sudden success of 
the Coffin party, said : — 

Now that your Honour may under- 
stand how they cam to be the greater 
pt; it was by M"" Macy his faceing 
about and his Family — a Man who was 
so much for the Dukes Interest when we 
were with your Honour at New Yorke 
as any of us. But now for divers by 
Ends it is otherwise. 
The writer of the letter from which this 
paragraph is quoted, who describes himself 
as " a poore old Man aged 60 years," was 
clerk of the writs, and recorder of the Gen- 
eral Court of the island, and when writing 
the letter he was a prisoner in Nantucket 
jail. Since the recent election, the court 
had taken a hand in the quarrel, and was 
pushing its influence in aid of the Coffin 

party. 



40 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

party. It had questioned Peter Foulger 
about a court book which was missing; 
and he, remembering that " out of nothing 
nothing comes," as he said, kept his mouth 
shut, " tho the court waited on hem a While 
and urged him to speak." Whereupon he 
was condemned to give a bond of twenty 
pounds for his appearance at the assizes in 
New York. His letter tells what happened : 
For want of Bond away the Constable 
carried me to Prison, a Place where 
never any English man was put and 
where the Neighbors Hogs had layd but 
the Night before in a bitter cold Frost 
and deepe Snow . . . the Constable told 
me I might ly upon the Boards and 
without Victuals or Fire. Indeed I per- 
swaded him to fetch a little Hay and he 
did so and some Friend did presently 
bring in Bedding and Victuals. 
When the court met in June, 1677, it had 
not procured the missing book ; but the 
magistrates, as the record says, " were in 
great measure stilled from their rage with 
promise thereof," and they sent their mar- 
shal to the jail to request Peter Foulger 

to 



THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 41 

to bring the book to the court. The pris- 
oner sent back this reply : — 

I doe certainly know that I have been 
a prisoner ever since the 14th of Febru- 
ary last past and doe as certainly know 
why I was put in prison. 
The disappointed magistrates, enraged 
by this reply, immediately issued a warrant 
" forthwith, to bring peeter foulger before 
the court to answer for his neglect to at- 
tend to his office." When he was brought 
in, no satisfaction could be got from him ; 
therefore, the court ordered a fine of five 
pounds to be levied on his estate, and 
" that he remain a close prisoner without 
Bayle until he deliver the said Book to the 
Authoritie of Nantucket; and likewise the 
Court do disfranchise the sayd peeter foul- 
ger." 

Judicial tyranny had become rampant on 
Nantucket. Many persons were arrested 
for expressing their opinions about the 
tyrannous acts of the court, or, as the 
magistrates said, " for speaking evil of 
Authoritie." One of these was Sarah, wife 
of Richard Gardner, convicted " for speak- 

inof 



42 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

ing very opprobriously concerning the 
imprisonment of peeter foulgier," but par- 
doned on being intimidated into repent- 
ance ; one was Tobias Coleman, who was 
fined twenty-five shillings "for many vile 
and scandalous words " about the magis- 
trates ; one was Eleazer Foulger, who was 
fined five pounds "for defamation of the 
court by saying it was cruelty to put his 
father in prison." 

On the same day the court concluded 
that it had good cause " to suspect Captain 
John Gardner to have an espetiall hand 
in obstructing the proceedings by joyning 
himself to peeter fouldier in keeping back 
and concealing the records." A warrant 
to arrest him at his house was given to Wil- 
liam Bunker, the marshal, who was author- 
ized to " draw latch, break open doors, and 
all things else remove that may obstruct." 
He returned to the court alone, bringing 
this message from John Gardner: "I do 
not disown the king's authority, but I will 
not act." 

The marshal, with two assistants, was 
sent back immediately, and the three men 

fetched 



THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 43 

fetched John Gardner by force into the 
court. When the magistrates spoke to 
him about his "contemptuous carriages," 
he listened in silence, and, without remov- 
ing his hat, he sat down on a chest whereon 
was seated Tristram Coffin, who said to 
him: — 

" I am sorry you do behave yourself as 
a Delinquent." 

To which John Gardner replied : — 
" I know my business ; and it may be 
that some of those that have meddled with 
me had better have eaten fier." ^ 

The court sought for reasons to punish 
him. It said : — 

We must maintain his Majesties 
authoritie espetially with the heathen 
among whom it was vulgarly Rumored 
that there is no Govournment on Nan- 
tucket ; and haveing good cause to sus- 
pect the same to proceed from some 
English instigating them to the Great 
danger of causeing insurrection ... we 
do therefore order that Capt. John Gard- 
ner 

1 From an affidavit by Tristram Coffin, June 13, 1677. 



44 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

ner shall pay a fine of Tenne pounds in 
Mony or Something Equivolent there- 
unto, and is disfranchised. 
No doubt Matthew Mayhew, secretary 
of the court and a zealous Coffinite, was in 
great glee when he signed these disfran- 
chisements. But, two months later, orders 
were received from Governor Andros direct- 
ing the court to suspend all proceedings 
against John Gardner and Peter Foulger, 
and declaring that their fines and disfran- 
chisements " are void and null as being be- 
yond your Authority." The intensity of 
the partisan spirit which possessed these 
people is shown in Mayhew's language and 
conduct as they are described in a letter 
addressed to Governor Andros by Captain 
Gardner after he had given to the secretary 
the governor's rebuke of the court : — 

Hee came to my Loging in as great 
a Pashon as I judge a Man could well 
be . . . tacking this Opertunity to vente 
him selve as followeth : telling mee I 
had bin at Yourke but should lose my 
Labor — that if the Governour did un- 
wind he would wind, and that he would 

make 



THE TRIUMPH OF JOHN GARDNER 45 

make my Fine and Disfranchisement to 
abid on me dow the Governour what he 
would . . . that I had spocken against 
his Interest and I should downe, with 
maney more Words of like Natuer. 
But New York was a long way from Nan- 
tucket. So the governor's orders were dis- 
regarded by the court, under pretense that 
they had been given without a knowledge 
of the facts, and John Gardner's cattle were 
sold to pay the fine. The people, however, 
were more loyal than the politicians. In 
a town meeting of January, 1678, they re- 
scinded the injunction, voted two years pre- 
vious, " prohibiting capt. Gardner and Peter 
Foulger to act in the publick consernes of 
the Island at New Yorcke or Elce whare ; " 
and at the next election they chose John 
Gardner an assistant magistrate. This act 
aroused the ire of Tristram Coffin, the chief 
magistrate of the island, who on the assem- 
bling of the General Court, October 9, 1679, 
caused to be entered on the records : — 
Whereas they have received informa- 
tion against the Town for electing Capt 
John Gardner for an assistant in govern- 
ment; 



46 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

merit ; ordered that a warrant be issued 
forth to call the Town to answer for 
contempt of authority therein, he being 
under sentence of court Incapable of 
such office of trust. 

The town was defiant of Tristram Coffin 
and his court. Many letters were passed 
between them expressing the bitterest feel- 
ings of each side. And when, on the first 
day of January, 1680, John Gardner ap- 
peared before the court to take the oath of 
his office, he bearded the lion in his den. 
The secretary recorded that " Mr. Tristram 
Coffin chefe magestrate on nantucket doe 
declare against the entry of Capt John 
Gardners oath as giving him power to sit 
as an assistant, he being under disfranchise- 
ment." 

The controversy reached its climax at 
the town meeting of June, 1680, when" Mr. 
Richard Gardner was chosen by the towne 
that his name might be sent to the govern- 
our, and Capt John Gardner was chosen 
that his name might be sent also, to know 
his pleasuer as to choyse respecting a 
Chife Magistrate for the year ensuing." 

Every 



THE TRIUMPH OF JOHN GARDNER 47 

Every townsman present at this meeting 
voted for the choice, except one. Tristram 
Coffin " enters his protest against the choos- 
ing of Capt. John Gardner." It was the 
last effort of this obstinate man to stem 
the rising tide. He passed away during 
the next year, at the age of seventy-two; 
and after his death one of the first acts of 
the town was to appoint John Gardner, 
Richard Gardner, and another townsman 
to " new survey and bound every mans 
lands meadows or creek stuff on the island 
of Nantucket," and to record them " in a 
new booke for the purpose to avoyd futer 
troble." 

The incidents of Tristram Coffin's public 
life show that Nantucket was not one of 
the Happy Isles. Its English population 
at this time was less than two hundred and 
fifty persons of all ages, of whom one half 
had been at difference with the other half. 
Its social life must have been of a low order. 
Its domestic comforts were few, as may be 
inferred from an inventory of " the goods 
and estate of Nathaniel Wier who deceased 
the ist day of March, 1680." It shows 

that 



48 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

that all his worldly possessions were valued 

at ^35, and consisted of: — 

his wareing aparell, shows and stock- 
ings, 2 pare of halfe woven sheets and 
a pillow case, i flock bed, i pillow, i 
blanket & 2 old Coverlets, i tabel & 3 
chars, i old bibell & 5 other books, i iron 
pot, 2 bras kettels, i scillet, i frying pan, 

1 Iron cettel, i grid Iron, a tranell, fiere 
shovel, fire tongs, i lamp, 6 milch tres, 
4 little tres, 4 trenchers, 3 old pueter 
dishes, 3 porrengers, i salt seler, i pint 
pot, I saser, i buterchern, 2 old chests, 

2 boxes, 5 yds. Wollen cloth, the dwell- 
ing house, out houses, the ten akers of 
land, 2 steers, i cow, 6 heafers, 1 7 cheses, 
20 weight of bacon, 3 busels of wheat, 8 
busels Indian Corne, i busel malt. 
There was an abundance of rum on the 

island, and, in barter for island products, 
supplies of it were renewed by the barrel. 
Steven Hussey, the most litigious of all 
the English inhabitants, petitioned to the 
governor in August, 1686, "yt if his Drink 
about ten or eleven Gallons of Rum so 
illegally taken from him must bee forfeit 

yt 



THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 49 

yt his Majesty may have it and yt it may 
not lay leakinge in the Hands of Joseph 
Gardner as it hath don for som years." It 
appears in the court records that Hussey 
smuggled this rum to the island in August, 
1683, and that it was seized by Joseph 
Gardner, acting for the court. He com- 
plained that the seizure was done " no 
other wise than a privateare or pirat might 
doe," and when called to prove his com- 
plaint he refused " to prosecute in any 
pertickular," but spoke " Reprochfully in 
Derogation of the acts of the Court and 
Continued obstanet justifying himselfe;" 
whereupon he was fined ten pounds, and 
he lost his rum. 

At this period, Sunday on the island is 
mentioned in the court records as a day of 
" much misdemeanure," — a day on which 
"vagrant persons are exposed to tempta- 
tion." Samuel Bickford is indicted "for 
being from his home in company a drinck- 
inge on a first day contrary to law." This 
man and his wife appear in the records as 
the keepers of a disorderly house ; and the 
story recorded of an affair therein, between 

Dennis 



50 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Dennis Manning and Katharine Innis, 
would be written up as the morning's sen- 
sation in a city newspaper of to-day. The 
site of Dennis Manning's house has been 
recently marked as one of the " historic 
sites " of Nantucket, — the dwelling-place 
of an ancient worthy. This fact furnishes 
a reason for mentioning his name in my 
narrative, and also for telling a part of 
what the court records of the island said 
of the man while he was living : — 

August 19, 1678. Katterine Innis 
being examined by M' Cofifin Chefe 
magistrate saith that she is with child 
and being asked whose it is She an- 
swered it is Denis Mannings — speaking 
in his presence — which he denied. . . . 
November 7th, 1678. Denis maning 
appears and is bound to ye Court. 

June 24th, 1679. Where as Kattering 
Innis formerly did say that she was with 
child by dennis maning and now the 
child being born still afiirmes the child 
is dennis mannings — The Court doth 
order that Denis maning shal take care 
for the mayntenance of the child and 

mayntayne 



THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 51 

mayntayne it as it ought to be, he being 
legally the father of it. And Katteren 
Innis is bound over to the next Court 
to make her appearance. The Court 
order that Katteren Innis shal nurse 
dennis mannings child which she laid 
to his charge, and the Court wil se her 
master William Worth paid. 

September 30th 1679. Katteren Innis 
being bound over appeareth. The Court 
hath ordered that she shall be whipt fif- 
teen stripes or pay five pound. 
In the history of those times John 
Gardner stands as the greatest of all the 
men who had to do with the beginnings 
of Nantucket. He had the genius of a 
leader, and his ability was recognized by 
Governor Andros in appointing him, three 
times, the chief magistrate of the island. 
The people made him their agent " to act 
in all matters of the towne at New York," 
and they said, " Whatsoever Captain Gard- 
ner shall agree for, about hireing a vessel 
to go, the towne will pay it." He was 
made the leader of a committee " to consult 
for the publicke good of the island against 

all 



52 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

all invaders of the peoples Rights ; " and in 
May, 1687, he was chosen "to go to New 
Yorke to manege such afeares as the town 
shall intrust him with." On his return, he 
brought Governor Dongan's " Patent to 
Certain Inhabitants of Nantucket," which 
made John Gardner, with six associates, 
" One Body Corporate and Politiq to be 
called by the Name of the Trustees of the 
Freeholders and Comonality of the Town," 
with right of purchasing from the Indians 
all "Tracts or Parcellsof Land" remaining 
in their possession, and to make such acts 
and orders " as they shall think convenient 
from time to time." For this charter they 
were to pay yearly " unto our Soverign 
Lord the King the sum of one Lamb or 
two shillings current money " of the prov- 
ince. 

That one lamb was a token of the peace- 
ful victory won by those who, under the 
lead of John Gardner, had persistently 
advocated equal rights for all the inhabit- 
ants of Nantucket. 

In the ancient burial field, on a breezy 
hill-top west of the town, stands a granite 

monument, 



THE TRIUMPH OP JOHN GARDNER 53 

monument, conspicuous above the bay- 
berry bushes, the blackberry vines, and the 
hawkweed blossoms that surround it. On 
its face are cut these words : — 

" Here lies buried ye body of 
John Gardner Esq'', aged 82, 
who died May, 1706." 

Near by are the unmarked graves of some 
of the men who stood with him and against 
him in the memorable struggle whose his- 
tory I have briefly related : — 

" Tired of tempest and racing wind, 

Tired of the spouting breaker, 
Here they came, at the end, to find 

Rest in the silent acre. 
Feet pass over the graveyard turf. 

Up from the sea, or downward ; 
One way leads to the raging surf. 

One to the perils townward ; 
* Hearken ! Hearken ! ' the dead men say, 

' Whose is the step that passes ? 
Knows he not we are free from all, 

Under the nodding grasses ? ' " 



Ill 

The Nantucket Indian 

The island of Nantucket was annexed to 
the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the 
year 1693. The Earl of Bellomont, who 
was governor of the province at the close 
of that century, said of the island : " There 
is a great store of sheep on it, 't is 16 miles 
long and 6 or 7 broad, the English there 
are 300 souls and the Indians 800." 

As soon as the English had established 
themselves on the island, it became neces- 
sary to put the Indian inhabitants under 
restraint. They were lazy and lawless, and 
reluctant to move off from lands which the 
English had bought. They burned the 
growing grass, hunted cattle on the com- 
mons, carried away English firewood, and 
stole English sheep. There was an Indian 
preacher named Steven, who, as the records 
say, was " complayned of by mr Coffin for 
killing a lam ; " for this offense he was con- 

demned 



THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 55 

demned to pay " ten shillings and prison 
fees." The same Steven was complained 
of by Richard Gardner for " stealing one 
barrel and seven gallons of oyl ; " the court 
gave to Steven an option of paying five 
pounds fifteen shillings and six pence, or 
" to serve Richard Gardner four whole 
years." Drunkenness became the Indian's 
predominant crime. In the year 171 1, the 
owners of Tuckernuck ^ petitioned the leg- 
islature at Boston to transfer that island to 
the jurisdiction of Nantucket, which was 
but a mile distant, so that its authorities 
may arrest the Indians who, it was said, 
" run over to Tuckernuck in the Winter to 

avoid 

1 Another small island adjacent to Nantucket, and belonging 
to it, is Muskeget. Its history, ownership, occupancy, aliena- 
tion of titles by inheritance and deeds, are enshrouded in un- 
certainty. The earliest purchase of the island by citizens of 
Nantucket, from a son of the elder Mayhew of Martha's Vine- 
yard, was by deed recorded at Edgartown. The early probate 
records of Nantucket contain meagre allusions to it, and the 
early records of deeds almost nothing. It is almost barren of 
vegetation, and has been a favorite resort for sportsmen in 
pursuit of wild fowl ; and from the remotest antiquity has been 
used as a free warren and piscatory, the waters around the 
island abounding in various kinds of fish and bivalves. Num- 
berless inhabitants of Nantucket, known to be the descendants 
of the first seven purchasers of Muskeget, have ever claimed 
the right to frequent it as tenants in common. 



56 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

avoid the payment of their Just debts;" 
and, while they are there, " Indians from 
Road Island and the main land carey over 
liquors and strong drink to them, when 
they get drunk and light and make great 
Disorder." Forty years later, Nantucket 
was placing before the legislature a picture 
of the condition of the Indians in which 
was shown to what degradation they had 
been dragged by the English. " The In- 
dians are so universally given to Strong 
Drinke," said the town, — unconscious 
that it was condemning itself, — " that as 
soon as their Corn is ripe the Greater part 
of them for the sake of Rum begins to 
make Sale of it, so that they are out of 
Corn before the Winter is past ; " and they 
" often hire out their planting land for the 
sake of Rum of which their Desires are 
Insatiate." 

The hiring of their planting lands was 
sometimes a device by the English for 
getting a permanent possession of them. 
Similar devices were practiced in Governor 
Bellomont's time, when three sachems of 
Nantucket sent to him a petition in which 

they 



THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 57 

they affirmed that the English were claim- 
ing such " Interest in the herbage of the 
whole island that they have, on pretence 
of trespass done by our cattle, taken them 
and converted them to their own use;" 
that they cannot obtain any justice in the 
courts of the island because the judges 
are claimants for their lands. They said, 
" We are not versed in the English law, 
yet we are taught our wrong by the light 
of Nature." 

This complaint referred to an act of the 
English inhabitants which the governor 
described as a " remarkable fraud that was 
put on the poor Indians on Nantucket 
Island." Writing about the matter to Eng- 
land, he said : — 

The Representative that served for 
Nantucket (one M' Coffin) came to solicit 
me and the Council to pass an Act to 
restrain the Indians on that Island from 
trading with Rhode Island. The In- 
dians had complain'd to me how hardly 
they were used by the English, and M"" 
Coffin own'd the whole matter there, viz 
that the English had bargained with the 

Indians 



58 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Indians that half of the Island should be 
for the use of the Indians to sow Indian 
wheat on, but that when the crop is off 
the land the grass on that land is to 
belong wholly to the English; so that 
these Indians, now that they would keep 
cattle, are not suffer'd so to do. This is 
such a circumvention and fraud as ought 
not to be suffer'd, and so I told M"" Cof- 
fin before the Council, and I declared I 
would not give the assent to any Bill 
that should put a further hardship on 
those Indians/ 

In the year 1706, five sachems of Nan- 
tucket complained to Governor Dudley at 
Boston that they " are very much wronged 
and oppressed " by the English, " who did 
over reach our forefathers in the purchase 
of lands and herbage, and carrying away 
all their wood." As they could not get 
justice in the island courts, they asked that 
a special court be constituted in Boston to 
try their claims. The governor referred 

the 

^ Letter of the Earl of Bellomont to the Lords Commission- 
ers for Trade and Plantations, in London, November 28, 1700. 



THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 59 

the petition to James Coffin, the representa- 
tive from the island. Thus was ^Esop's 
fable illustrated : the wolf was made a pro- 
tector of the sheep. And when in the 
year 171 7 another petition was received at 
Boston, Governor Shute and his Council 
resolved " that the Island of Nantucket be 
annexed to Suffolk County," in order that 
a just treatment might be secured to the 
Indians ; but the House of Representatives 
did not concur in this resolution, and 
thereafter Nantucket Indians petitioned 
the provincial legislature in vain. 

The English inhabitants of the island 
had so intermarried with each other that 
judges and jurymen were related as first or 
second cousins, and in the trials of land 
suits they were naturally united against 
any Indian plaintiff. While Sir William 
Phipps was governor of the province, from 
the year 1692 to the year 1695, he received 
a letter from Matthew Mayhew mentioning 
this state of affairs, and saying that, in con- 
sequence of it, " the indians cannot expect 
anie justice in anie thing relating to their 
lands." This fact was reiterated in all peti- 
tions 



6o QUAINT NANTUCKET 

tions sent by the Indians to the legislature 
at Boston ; and their petitions were fre- 
quent for sixty years after the date of May- 
hew's letter. In a petition dated Decem- 
ber, 1 75 1, they asked again for a removal 
of their trials for land to the courts of an- 
other county, because in Nantucket " both 
Judges and Jurors are all Interested." At 
previous times this request had been met 
by an opinion of the English that it would 
be unjust to put Indians to the expense of 
traveling to distant courts ; but now it was 
stated that their deeds of land were for- 
geries.^ At last the truth was confessed 
by the representatives of Nantucket when, 
in June, 1752, they answered a petition 

from 

1 ..." And the said Indian claims a Tract of land by Virtue 
of a Writeing said to be Given by Nikanosso bearing date 1668, 
we have taken Considerable pains in Searching into that Writ- 
ing and it Seems to us self Evident to be a piece of Forgery for 
it appeared Originally writ in Indian Translated into English 
by Mr. Experience Mayhew, whereas the Year that Said Write- 
ing bears date there was not an Indian on Nantuckett that un- 
derstood One letter in the Alphabett neither did there ever ap- 
pear to be such a Writing untill about the time that it crept on 
the Records of Martha's Vineyard which was in the year 1745." 
— Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts, June 5, 1752, 
by Richard Coffin and Abishai Folger, "Guardians unto the 
Indians of Nantucket." 



THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 6 1 

from the Indians to the legislature, and 
said : — 

As to the Complainants Petitioning 
for the Removal of Tryals in Real Estate 
to some other County, that both Judges 
and Jurors are all Interested, we answer 
Tis fact as to the Justices but not as to 
the Jurors. 

A few quotations from court records will 
reveal the character of that mixed life of 
the English and Indian inhabitants of Nan- 
tucket which continued for nearly a hun- 
dred years after the settlement of the 
island : — 

25th March 1679. Mr Coffin Com- 
playnes against Philip Cumes for lying 
and other rude carages, the sentance of 
the Court is that this Endian shall set 
toe ours in the Stocks next trayning 
day. 

At another time the same Indian was 
"severely whipt for sundry storrys and 
lyes." If the lying was confessed the cul- 
prit gained no mercy. Sara Nesfeld, a 
squaw, " being Inditted for Telling severall 
lyes she owning her fault the Court saw 

good 



62 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

good to fine her ten shillings." Will Cow- 
keeper, an Indian (so named because he 
drove cows from the commons to the town 
gate, at evening, to be milked, and drove 
them back at morning), was convicted with 
Jack Never of " breaking a ware house of 
Nathaniel Starbuck and carrying away sev- 
eral goods." Each Indian was fined " nine 
bussels of Endian Corne and twenty toe 
shillings and six pens." Jack Never was 
a persistent thief, frequently before the 
court, to which on a certain occasion 

He confesseth that he went in to 
Capt John Gardners house About the 
midel of the night and tooke out of M"" 
Gardners pocket by the bead side five 
shillings in mony and allso open'd a case 
and caried away a bottel with a bout a 
pint of Licquor in it ; the sentance of 
the Court is that he shal be whipt 
twenty strips upon the naked body of 
Jack never above said. 
Rum was given to Indians in payment 
for services in fishing-boats ; the return of 
the boats caused a prevalence of drunken- 
ness on the island difficult to be suppressed. 

" Five 



THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 63 

" Five shillings for being Drunk " is the 
court's oft-repeated sentence on Indian cul- 
prits. The selling of rum was a business 
licensed to Englishmen by the court ; but 
Indians undertook it without a license, and 
were punished. For example : — 

Whare as Dare was complayned of 
for Retayling drinck contrary to law, and 
Powpashon for Resisting the constable, 
the Sentance of the Court is that Dare 
pay for Retayling thre ponds and Pow- 
pashon for Resisting forty shillings." 
Branding the flesh was a form of punish- 
ment inflicted on Indians, although it was 
not authorized by the charter, which limited 
punishments to "whipping, stocks, and pil- 
loring, or other public shame." The sen- 
tence imposed upon two Indians, who had 
confessed the charge of stealing sheep, was, 
" Isaack shall be branded on the hand and 
Petter shall be well whipped." There was 
more cruelty than justice in some acts of 
the court against " the heathen," as Indians 
were sometimes called in the records. 
When an Indian named Julaps confessed 
the theft of five bushels of grain and two 

bags 



64 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

bags from Joseph Meader's mill, he was 
fined eight pounds, and was branded " on 
the forehead with the letter B." An Indian 
called Samcook, who stole " about five quarts 
of Rum " from Richard Coffin's vessel, was 
sentenced to pay one pound six shillings 
and six pence, " and he shall be branded 
with the letter B." Two Indian lads con- 
victed of stealing were condemned to pay 
seven pounds and six shillings, and to " be 
branded on the forehead with the letter B." 
Thomas Bunker prosecuted the Indians 
named Tooth Harry and Jobone "for 
breaking open his house and stealing about 
three gallons of Rum and breaking his 
windows and carrying away a paile and 
a Rundlet." They confessed the theft, 
excepting the runlet, and each was fined 
a sum amounting to three times the value 
of the articles, and " they both," says the 
record, "were branded with the letter B." 

The courts dealt with various domestic 
matters of the Indians, from a divorce down 
to the return of a borrowed pot. I quote 
from the records some examples between 
the years 1673 and 1683. Quench, the 

Indian, 



THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 65 

Indian, complained against the conduct of 
his wife ; the result of the complaint was : 
" The court findeth her guilty and a divourse 
is granted, and the woman that was his wife 
is fined twenty shillings to hem in Regard 
to his trobell." When the Indian Naka- 
tootanit " put away his wife," the court 
ordered him to take her back and "live 
loveingly with her or else he shall be se- 
verely punished ; " and the " woman Kuha- 
petaw that he last companed as his wife" 
was condemned to be whipped ten stripes. 
Another case of similar kind was that 
of Wosoak's wife, who complained against 
her husband "for leaving of her." The 
court " findeth him guilty of having to 
doe with an other woman in an Evill way," 
and ordered both Wosoak and the woman 
to be whipped. Then Desier complained 
against Tuckernuck " for abusing his wife ; " 
he " owneth he was with her," and he was 
condemned to pay Desier twenty shillings. 
Now and then there was a breach of prom- 
ise before the court. For example, a squaw 
complained of John Fisherman's son " for 
non performance of his covenant with her 

he 



66 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

he having Promised her marrag, and the sd 
John owned he had don soe." The court 
ordered that " if John doe not marry the 
Squaw he shal be whipt twenty strips and 
pay the woman thirty shillings." 

At the same session came up the com- 
plaint of Patience, a squaw, who, as the 
record says, " being with child layeth it to 
a Gentelmans Son, and the Court orders 
that he shall be whiped or pay a fine of 
twenty shillings, and the sd Patience, when 
she is delivered and well, to be whipt fif- 
teen strips and pay costs." 

Nanespepo was an Indian who com- 
plained to the court that his wife " hath for- 
saken him about a yeare and followed other 
men." The court issued a proclamation, 
and the public crier went about the island 
repeating it, that " If the Nanespepo wife 
return not unto her husband within six 
weeks after ye day, Nanespepo is freed 
from her." This was a quick method of 
divorce. 

The court busied itself with all kinds of 
complaints from Indians ; as, when Jepta 
complained that the sachems Nicanoose 

and 



THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 67 

and Wowinet " did hinder him of his share 
of a drift whale," the court ordered that he 
should have his share of the whale in spite 
of the sachems ; and when Wosoak com- 
plained that Matakeken had taken his 
canoe in the fishing season, when he wanted 
it, Wosoak was compelled to pay twenty 
shillings for the use of the canoe. 

The pot cases are a mystery to a student 
of the records. The clerk of the court 
wasted no words in explanation of his writ- 
ings, sometimes stating a complaint with- 
out the decision and sometimes a decision 
without the complaint; for he could not 
suppose that, two hundred years later, there 
would exist a desire to know what was 
going on at Nantucket during his lifetime, 
and why Englishmen and Indians were 
then borrowing and lending pots. 

Capt Gardner complayneth against 
Coshomadamon for disposing of a pot 
lent him. 

Cutuaram widdow of Thomas an 
Indian complaineth against Coshoma- 
damon for taking and disposing of her 
pot. 

Sesepana 



68 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Sesepana complayns against a squaw 

called Cuddusue for holding his pot. 
Zackery complaines against Wowinet 

for not Returning a borrowed pot. 
Tomasos wiffe complayned against 

Roag for with holding her pot. 

The mystery increases when I find this 
opinion written in the court records, as 
sequel to a decision about land : — 

The case of the pot is thus ended, the 

pot is to be divided, he that hath the pot 

must pay the other half the price. 

This reads as if the court had been en- 
gaged in a game of poker. 

There was also an Indian court, whose 
acts were subject to review by the English. 
For what special purposes it was formed, 
or how long it lasted, does not appear. 
Evidence that it existed is found in the 
appeals from it which are mentioned in the 
records of the English court, and which 
show that it did not stand in high favor 
with the Indians. In June, 1677, before the 
English court, Obadiah was charged "with 
resisting the authority of the Indian court 
in Nantucket in that he came with several 

persons 



THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 69 

persons with hem and endevord to Resque 
one that was to be whipt a way out of the 
constables hands — also he fought with a 
padel, using Reviling Speeches against the 
members of the Court." Obadiah gave as 
reason for his conduct that " the magis- 
trates are not Right or doe not that which 
is Just." They could not be just if they 
were like the Indian magistrate named 
Sasapane, who was removed from his place 
by the English court " for being drunck 
and also fighting." 

Quoquasha, a squaw, appealed to the 
English Court concerning " goods that were 
taken from her by order of the Indian mag- 
istrates to the vallew of twenty shillings 
and six pence; " the court directed that the 
goods were to be returned to the squaw. 
Waquaqenaway appealed from the Indian 
court "because they took away his wheat 
to buy clothing for his wife, when he said 
he was willing to doe it himselfe." The 
English court ordered " that he shall have 
his wheat againe and shall provide his wife 
clothing according to a man of his Rancke." 
Sometimes the Indian magistrates were 

punished 



70 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

punished for their injustices, as, when 
Shanapetuck complained because she had 
been whipped " for gathering gooseberries," 
the Enghsh court ordered " that those 
magestrats Imqueness and Sam shall pay 
the woman ten shillings." 

When Indians had neither money, corn, 
oil, nor feathers with which to pay their 
fines, they sometimes pledged a canoe as 
security. The records of the year 1690 
say : — 

Aspatchamo in open Court delivereth 
his Canoe unto William Worth for 
secuerity for his fine, being twenty shil- 
lings, which he ingageth to pay in fish, 
and William Worth engageth to pay sd 
fine. 

When they were unable to pay anything 
they were sold into slavery ; or they were 
bound to the English, or to the sachems, 
in a servitude which was equivalent to slav- 
ery. An Indian named Moab, convicted 
of stealing sheep, was condemned " to serve 
John Macy three years ;" another Indian, 
for stealing eighteen sticks of whalebone, 
was condemned to serve Thomas Macy 

seven 



THE NANTUCKET INDIAN 71 

seven years ; Alewife, convicted of stealing 
" three payles of strong beer one Galon of 
malases, two galons of Rum," was con- 
demned to serve Nathaniel Starbuck and 
Peter Cofifin, from whom the goods were 
stolen, " the time of six whole years." It 
was an easy way of securing a house ser- 
vant, to catch an Indian in the act of theft. 
Damaris, an Indian girl accused of " steal- 
ing sundry goods," valued at less than 
five pounds, was condemned to return the 
goods, pay ten pounds, be whipped ten 
stripes, and to serve John Gardner four 
years. 

The Indian named Coottas stole and 
killed sheep ; the court condemned him to 
pay " a fine of fower pound and ten shil- 
lings or to ly in prison tel the Court do 
find a way to sell him for payment " of the 
fine. An Indian named Jasper came up 
and engaged " to pay in to the Court by 
next harvest" the £^ los., and thereupon 
Coottas was set free. The next year he 
was convicted of stealing " a considerable 
quantity of Sheep." The record says that, 
as " the court find him very Incouragable 

thare 



72 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

thare Sentance is that he Remeane a pris- 
oner in mr Starbucks custody till opper- 
tunity present for his being sold." His 
confederate thief, named Kessasume, was 
condemned to "pay thirty shillings pres- 
ently or be sold ; and if he Run away from 
his master then he is to be whipt every 
time he so Runs away." As Kessasume 
could not pay " presently," that is, on the 
nail, the sachem Wowinet paid the fine and 
took him " as a servant." 

There must have been many attempts 
to get free from this slavery by escape from 
the island ; for it was ordered in the year 
1670 that every Englishman or Indian 
shall be fined twenty shillings who " shall 
carry away in any vessel any Indian ser- 
vant off this Hand without an order from 
his master to do so." 



IV 

The Dominion of the Qzcakers 

"Would'st thou know," says Charles 
Lamb, " what true peace and quiet mean ; 
would'st thou find a refuge from the noises 
and clamors of the multitude; would'st 
thou enjoy at once solitude and society; 
would'st thou possess the depth of thine 
own spirit in stillness, without being shut 
out from the consolatory faces of thy spe- 
cies? Come with me into a Quakers' 
Meeting." 

The Quaker meeting-house of Nantucket 
was an unpainted building, as destitute of 
external ornament as a farmer's barn. It 
was painfully simple within ; the smooth 
pine benches had been so frequently washed 
that they were as clean as a scrubbing- 
board ; the floor was sprinkled with white 
sand ; there were no cobwebs on the win- 
dows ; there was no dust in the corners. 
The worshipers came in softly, and when 

they 



74 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

they were seated the stillness of the house 
was like the stillness of a desert. 

If it was " a first day," the women were 
dressed in silks, satins, and camlets of quiet 
colors, — brown, gray, and white ; the men 
were dressed in broadcloths of the same 
hues, wearing their hats, which they re- 
moved only during prayer. Girls were 
dressed like matrons; and they naturally 
felt that the sober apparel and emotion- 
less habits of Quakerism were a restraint 
upon their lives, tempting them at times to 
turn away dissatisfied with the universal 
calm.* 

Now and then the trembling voice of a 
woman was heard, rising gently out of the 

congregation, 

1 In early times Quakers did not wear a uniformly plain 
apparel. George Fox, the apostle of Quakerism, bought a 
scarlet gown for his wife, and she adorned herself with laces 
and gay ribbons ; his daughter was particular to have her 
gowns made " very civil and as usually worn." Quaker girls 
of those times wore blue stockings, red petticoats, and bright- 
colored aprons. In love emotions there was a warmth corre- 
sponding with the colors of the clothing. It was more than 
two hundred years ago when Thomas Lower, loving Mary 
Fell, wrote to her : " Now, my dearest, to whom my heart is 
perfectly united, do I heartily embrace thee in the arms of 
pure affection and seal it unto thee with the lips of Truth." 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 75 

congregation, offering a few words, " as the 
spirit moveth," on a chance that they " may 
suit the condition of some one present." 
Sometimes the assembly remained mute 
during the hour of worship, and this " silent 
waiting on God " might continue Sunday 
after Sunday. 

The early Quakers of Nantucket were 
noted for exactness in religious knowledge ; 
for habits of order, prudence, and thrift; 
and for careful attention to the intellectual 
education of their children. Some of them 
were born into Quakerism, some were con- 
verted to it, and some assumed it under 
a pressure of circumstance ; for wherever 
the Quakers of colonial times became nu- 
merous, the power of their inexpensive 
religion was felt, because it suited the fru- 
gal habits of those who had no affinity with 
other sects. Curiosity led them into the 
meetings, and without effort or persuasion 
they accepted the faith and the speech of 
the Quakers.^ 

In 

1 " You professors nicknamed us by the name of Quakers in 
the year 1650, which name one Bennet of Derby gave us when 
he cast us into prison, . . . who was the first that called us 

Quakers 



^6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

In the year 1701, John Richardson, a 
Quaker preacher from England, accom- 
panied by PubHc Friends, as they were 
called, came to Nantucket in a sloop from 
Newport. Peleg Slocum, the Quaker cap- 
tain of the sloop, losing his course in a 
summer fog, ran her ashore on an uninhab- 
ited part of the island, where the company 
remained all night. The next morning 
they ascended a bluff and discovered many 
people approaching them, for the sloop had 
been seen, and was suspected to be a French 
vessel bringing armed men to invade the 
island.^ John Richardson advanced, hold- 



Quakers because I bid them tremble at the word of the Lord." 
— George Fox. 

1 There was war between England and France, and Nan- 
tucket had been already invaded by French privateers from 
the West Indies. John Gardner wrote to the Governor of the 
Massachusetts : — 

WoRSHiPPFULL Sir — This is to enform you that this night 
the ffrench landed on our Island, plunderd one House and 
corred away a man & his son and are now about the Island, 
of what sort I know not, it is but a small vessell. They said 
at the House there was 2 more of which we know not. 

We thot Good so far to signifie that by post out to Boston 
which is all in haste. Your Servant 

John Gardner 

Nantucket, the 

3d day of May 1695. 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 77 

ing out his arms, and said that he and his 
companions had come to visit the island in 
the love of God. 

Foremost of these Nantucket people was 
a woman named Mary Starbuck, the mo- 
ther of four sons and six daughters. Of 
all the women of colonial times who were 
influential in public affairs, she stands pre- 
eminent. But little was known of her 
beyond the horizon of Nantucket, for she 
lived in a period when the towns of New 
England were as isolated as if they were 
islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Richardson 
met her in the house of one of her sons. 
He says in his journal : " Mary Starbuck 
came in, whom the islanders esteem as a 
judge among them for little of moment is 
done without her. At the first sight of her 
it sprang to my heart — ' To this woman 
is the everlasting love of God.' I looked 
upon her as a woman that bore some sway 
on the island ; and so I said to her, ' We 
are come in the love of God to visit you if 
you are willing to let us have some meet- 
ings.' " 

When he asked, " Where shall the meet- 
ings 



78 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

ings be ? " she paused awhile, and then re- 
plied, " I think at our house." The order 
of her house, says Richardson's journal, 
" was such in all parts thereof as I had 
not seen the like before ; the large and 
bright-rubbed room was set with suitable 
seats or chairs for a meeting, so that I did 
not see anything wanting according to 
place but something to stand on, for I was 
not free to set my feet upon the fine cane 
chair lest I should break it." During the 
service Mary Starbuck " strove against the 
testimony, sometimes looking up in my 
face with a pale and then with a more 
ruddy complexion. When she could no 
longer contain she lifted up her voice and 
wept. She stood up and held out her 
hand, and spoke tremblingly and said — 
' All that ever we have done is pulled down 
this day, and this is the everlasting truth.' " 
Four years later, a Quaker missionary 
named Thomas Story visited Nantucket. 
He wrote in his journal that there were 
no settled religious teachers of any kind 
on the island ; that several " had made 
attempts upon the people, but were disap- 
pointed, 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 79 

pointed, for there was one Nathaniel Star- 
buck whose wife was a wise discreet woman 
well read in the scriptures, and not attached 
to any sect, but was in great reputation 
throughout the island for her knowledge 
in matters of religion ; and an oracle, in so 
much that they would not do anything 
without her advice and consent thereon. 
. . . One night my sleep was taken away 
from me under a concern of mind for the 
settlement of a meeting. The chief in- 
strument pointed to in my thoughts for 
this service was Mary Starbuck to whom 
I made it known. I proposed it likewise 
to her children ; being all convinced of 
the Truth, they were ready to embrace the 
proposal." 

She lived long enough to see the pros- 
perity of the work which she undertook, 
and then it was written in the town book : 
"Mary Starbuck departed this life ye 13 
day of ye 12 mo. 1 719, in ye 74 year of her 
age, and was decently buried in Friends 
burying ground." I have found no per- 
sonal memorials of her save this letter, 
which she wrote to a grandchild, Eliza Gor- 

ham, 



8o QUAINT NANTUCKET 

ham, in Boston, who had suffered losses by 
fire: — 

Nantucket ye 17. ist mo. 1714. 

Dear Child Eliz — These few lines 
may certifie thee that thou art often in 
my remembrance with thy dear hus- 
band & children ; with breathings to the 
Lord for you that his presence may be 
with you that therein you may find rest 
in all your visitations & trials ; as also 
that here is a trunk fil'd with goods, 
which is intended to be put on board 
Ebenezer Stuart's vessell, which are 
several tokens from thy friends, which 
thou mayest particularly see by these 
little minutes here inclosed & by some 
other marks that are upon the things — 
thy Aunt Dorcas is a new piece of oxen- 
brigs, thy aunt Dinas is a pair of blankets, 
thy Grandfather intends to send thee a 
barrell of mutton, but it is not all his own 
for cousin James sent hither 1 7 pieces ; 
cousin James said he intended to send 
thee 2 or 3 bushels of corn ; there is like- 
wise sent from our womens meeting 7 
pounds which thy uncle Jethro said he 

would 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 8 1 

would give an order for thee to take at 
Boston ; sister James told me she in- 
tended to send thee 2 bushells of corn & 
some wool, & likewise said that justice 
Worth said that he would send some 
corn. More meat & corn will be sent 
which will be in greater quantities which 
thy uncle Jethro Starbuck will give thee 
an account of or to thy Husband. I 
should have been glad if he had come 
over with Stuart, but I hope we shall see 
him this summer if not both of you. So 
with my kind love to thee thy Husband & 
children & to all friends, committing you 
to the protection of the almighty who 
is the wise dispenser of all things, I re- 
main thy affectionate Grandmother — 
Mary Starbuck. 
The conversion of Mary Starbuck and 
her children was the beginning: of Oua- 
kerism on Nantucket. A majority of the 
islanders, influenced by this woman, were 
opposed to a hired ministry, as being con- 
trary to the practice of the apostles ; but 
she consented that when a " hireling minis- 
ter " came to the island, and was agreeable 

to 



82 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

to the people, and stayed some time, and 
took pains to benefit them, the people might 
give what they pleased for his sustenance, 
— "such as Indian corn or other provi- 
sions, as they happened to have at the 
time to spare, and wool for clothing, but 
nothing certain or settled." ^ 

In her house the Quaker church was 
formed, and there it worshiped for four 
years. A record book was bought in 
April, 1 708, and the first writing in it was 
a petition to the Rhode Island Yearly 
Meeting "to be joined unto" some Quar- 
terly Meeting, and to have on Nantucket 
" a general meeting of worship once in ye 
year ; " which acts were to make a con- 
nection with the Quaker societies of New 
England. 

At the same time it was agreed " to take 
care for a piece of ground for a lot to set a 
meeting-house on & for a burial ground." 

Patience 

1 William Penn exhorted Quakers to " cultivate a universal 
spirit," because recognizing the universality of Divine spiritual 
visitation. And this sense of the priesthood of the individual 
man, and of every one's responsibility direct to God, led the 
Quaker to object to all hierarchical or priestly assumptions. 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 83 

Patience Gardner, Ann Barnard, and Mir- 
iam Worth were " appointed to regulate 
the conduct of children in meeting," — a 
more suitable appointment than was cus- 
tomary in the Puritan churches of New 
England, where this duty was assigned to 
men. Next year, they agreed to build the 
meeting-house " as fast as we can ; " eight 
years later, they paid Jabez Macy for en- 
larging it " by adding twenty feet more in 
length ; " and the congregation increased 
to such an extent that, in the year 1730, 
men were selected " to make choyce of a 
place to set a new meeting house on." 
This house was built during the next year, 
and was paid for as soon as it was finished. 
From its beginning the church had 
money in hand, and was liberal in gifts 
to help its poor and to maintain its faith. 
At every Monthly Meeting " to inspect ye 
affairs of ye Church," or, as the records 
sometimes say, " to inspect ye affairs of 
Truth," shillings and sixpences were col- 
lected " for ye servise & use of Friends." 
Out of the meeting's stock thus collected, 
five pounds were given to help to build 

a 



84 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

a meeting-house in Providence town ; five 
pounds to help to build one at Smithfield ; 
two pounds to help " ye purchase of a Cer- 
tain piece of land at boston " for a meeting- 
house ; twelve pounds were given " for ye 
procuring an unjust law made null and 
voyd whereby Friends suffer much in the 
loss of their goods ; " money was paid " for 
Friends passages from the main to our 
meetings ; " fifteen pounds were given to 
Thomas Hathaway " towards repairing his 
loss of his house by fire ; " four pounds 
were given to Joseph Hamlin, " he being 
poor and craving help ; " twenty pounds 
were sent to England to get the disappro- 
val of " a law in New England by which 
Friends suffer persecution and are greatly 
oprest by ye presbitereans." 

The time for opening the book of disci- 
pline came soon to this little church. Let 
us read from its records of May, 1 708 : 
" Our visitors having treated with Sarah 
Darling respecting her marrying with a 
man of another persuasion, and dont find 
any disposition in her to condemn herself, 
It is the judgement of the meeting that 

she 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 85 

she be set aside." And let us read from 
the records of April, 1 709 : " Phebe wife of 
George Bunker is set aside for going with 
another man. Eunice Alley is set aside 
for marrying contrary to the good order of 
Friends and refusing to give satisfaction." 
But Lois Lacey and Lydia Folger, who 
were guilty of the same transgression, stood 
up in meeting and told of their sorrow 
and were forgiven. So, too, with William 
Swayne, who, to save himself from disown- 
ment by the Quaker church, confessed his 
sins, " for which," he said, " I am truly 
sorry & begg pardon of God, desiring also 
to be forgiven by his people whom I have 
grieved, brought truble & reproch upon by 
my scandelouse behaviour. I do Declare 
yt if I had kept to ye Light & Truth as 
held & profesed by ye people called Qua- 
kers it would have preserved me out of 
yt evil." ^ Other acts besides immoralities 
were punished by disownment. The prin- 
ciples of the Quaker Society forbade its 
members to contend with each other in law- 
suits ; 

1 Records of the Quaker Society, October, 17 15. 



86 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

suits ; and when Stephen Hussey, who had 
become a notorious plaintiff in the courts, 
had caused the arrest of three of the town's 
trustees, and expressed no regret for his ac- 
tion, the church immediately disowned him. 
Although many of the Quakers of Nan- 
tucket were slaveholders, the church delib- 
erately recorded this opinion about slavery 
in June, 1716: "It was ye sence & judge- 
ment of this meeting that it is not agree- 
able to Truth for Friends to purchase 
slaves & keep them term of life." This 
ambiguous opinion exhibited the worldly 
shrewdness of Quakerism. It did not con- 
demn slavery as a sin ; it merely protested 
in a mild manner against the purchase 
of more slaves, and the keeping a slave 
during the " term of life." It fell short of 
the general sentiment about slavery exist- 
ing in other parts of New England at that 
time. In the year 1701, the town of Bos- 
ton instructed its representatives at the 
General Court to use their influence to 
procure the abolishment of slavery. The 
Quakers had no thought of its abolition. 
Indian and African slaves were valued as 

merchandise 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 87 

merchandise in their inventories, and were 
mentioned as in their possession, down to 
the end of the colonial period. Stephen 
Hussey's will, made in the year 1716, be- 
queathed — 

To my wife a negro woman named 
Sarah. 

To my son Silvanus a negro boy 
named Mark. 

To my daughter Theodata a negro 
girl named Dorothy. 
The Quaker church records of the year 
1760 say : — 

We have treated with Timothy Fol- 
ger and he says that he is bound over 
the sea and is determined, before his 
departure, to put his negro girl in a posi- 
tion of living free at twenty-five years of 
age. 

The account book of William Rotch, 
Quaker merchant, says, that in August, 
1770, he paid " the cost and court charges 
on my negro George for stealing three 
geese." 

The Quaker church showed its worldly 
shrewdness, also, in giving an opinion about 

the 



88 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

the wearing of periwigs. A Rhode Island 
Quarterly Meeting of the year 1 72 1 advised 
a general examination of the question, 
" What method or measure may be most 
easy and effectual to prevent Friends wear- 
ing extravagant wiggs ? " The opinion of 
the Nantucket meeting, given a year later, 
was evidently not intended as an offense to 
its wig-wearing members : — 

That all such who propose they have 
need of a wigg ought to take ye advice 
& approbation of ye visitors of their 
meetings before they proceed to get one. 
. . . That all be careful not in a careless 
or overly minde to cutt off their hair 
(which was given them for a covering) 
to put on a wigg or indecent capp which 
has been a gaining practice to ye Trou- 
ble of many earnest Friends. 
Having satisfied their consciences by this 
recorded opinion, the Quakers expressed 
some concern about the renewed activity 
of their neighbor, the little Presbyterian 
society, which for some time had been in a 
comatose state ; and they threw a stone at 
it by affirming " our antient & christian 

testimony 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 89 

testimony against paying towards ye main- 
tenance of a hireling ministry." 

In the Quaker society, love, courting, 
and marriage were regulated, so far as was 
possible, by the Book of Discipline. The 
man and the woman intending marriage 
were required to declare their intentions 
to the Monthly Meeting. In the silence 
of this assembly the man rises and says, 
for example, " I intend to take Margaret 
Gardner to be my wife if the Lord per- 
mit ; " then Margaret rises and says, " I 
intend to take Jonathan Folger to be my 
husband if the Lord permit." From that 
moment, as the book declares, " they do 
not dwell in the same house together until 
the marriage is consumated." A com- 
mittee is then appointed to ascertain " the 
conversation and clearness of the parties ; " 
to ascertain if either of them has previously 
made an engagement to marry, or has had 
any entanglements with men or women. 
If the report of these inspectors is favor- 
able, " the continuance of their intention 
of marriage" is permitted, and they are 

said 



90 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

said to have "passed meeting." But the 
inspectors' report sometimes disclosed 
unpleasant facts. For example : " Robert 
Gardner and Judith Folger appeared be- 
fore the meeting and declared their inten- 
tions of marriage. Elihu Coleman and 
Benjamin Barney were appointed to inquire 
into Robert Gardner's clearness from other 
women." ^ The committee reported : " We 
do not find that he is altogether clear, 
there being a scandalous report of him on 
ye accusation of a young woman." For 
this he offered to condemn himself, and 
after his condemnation had been read in 
meeting he was allowed to marry Judith 
Folger. This seems to have been the 
usual way of getting out of a sinful mire. 
When Mary Paddock was about to marry 
Francis Swaine, the committee to examine 
into their clearness made a very unfavora- 
ble report. The two stood up in the meet- 
ing of next first day and read a self-con- 
demnation by which their sin was to be 
expiated, and the queasy conscience of 

Quaker 

1 Records of the Quaker Society, A. D. 1729. 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 91 

Quaker society was to be appeased. It was 
simply this : " Friends, we are very sorry 
for our transgression, and desire mercy 
from God, and beg forgiveness of the 
people of God whom we have offended." 
Then the past was buried, and they were 
allowed to marry. 

Marriages were made in the meeting- 
house before witnesses, who subscribed 
their names to a certificate of the act. 
George Fox, the apostle of Quakerism, 
said, " We marry none, but are witnesses 
of it." He taught that marriage is " God's 
joining, not man's ; " that no human priest- 
hood, no " man-made minister," had a right 
to perform the ceremony, which was like 
a piece of simple machinery. There were 
no orange blossoms, no music, no veils, no 
gifts. Alongside the bridegroom were 
placed " two judicious, grave and weighty 
men," and alongside the bride were " two 
such women," as the book calls them, whose 
faces may have been solemn enough for 
a funeral. At the proper moment these 
guardians told the young man and the 
young woman to stand up. Rising and 

taking 



f)2 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

taking each other by the hand, the man 
said, " in an audible and solemn manner," 
as required by the book, " I take this 
woman to be my wife, promising through 
divine assistance to be unto her a loving 
and faithful husband until it shall please 
the Lord by death to separate us ; " the 
woman then repeated similar words re- 
specting the man, and thus they became 
husband and wife. 

No one kissed the bride, no one smiled 
as if heartily approving the marriage ; and 
as she retired from the silent meeting- 
house, no one threw the slipper with which 
she was to stroke down her husband, as 
Omphale stroked the head of Hercules 
with her sandal when he became unruly. 
They hastened to a place where, with only 
their intimate friends, they enjoyed a cele- 
bration of the marriage. But even to this 
retreat the Quaker meeting sent its spies 
to see if the joyousness was decent and 
orderly. I quote an illustration from the 
church records of the year 1 769 : — 

" The members appointed to attend 
Francis Barnard's marriage make return 

that 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 93 

that it was pretty well conducted except- 
ing that some of the young people were 
very disorderly ; whereupon William Coffin 
& Samuel Starbuck are appointed to in- 
quire into the case." They reported *' that 
they have treated with the young man and 
with the master of the house where the 
entertainment was, who say they disallow 
of such disorders & hope to be more care- 
ful in the future." 

The records do not describe that " very 
disorderly " conduct which the spies dis- 
covered; but, however disorderly, it was 
probably nothing more than a spontane- 
ous outburst of joy for their brief freedom 
from the shackles of Quakerism. 

Many of the marriageable girls of Nan- 
tucket were born into the Quaker society, 
and it was necessary for a young man of 
" the world's people " to ask for admission, 
or, as the phrase was, " to be taken under 
the care of Friends," if he would take 
under his own care the blooming young 
Quakeress upon whom his affection had 
been fixed. Joseph Nichols, for example, 
declaring his desire "to be taken under 

direction 



94 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

direction and care," is admitted ; and soon 
thereafter his intention of marriage with 
Mary Ann Barnard is announced in meet- 
ing. _ ^ 

Discipline in the Quaker church was 
never relaxed. The members were sur- 
rounded by a mysterious surveillance which 
was alert to catch every rumor, and to un- 
cover every act offensive to what was called 
" the good order of Truth." The necessity 
frequently arising for an exercise of disci- 
pline was doubtless painful to those of the 
communion who strove to maintain its 
reputation for purity and sobriety. But 
their theory of a righteous life was ill-fitted 
to struggle with all the evil tendencies of 
human nature ; and this fact was acknow- 
ledged when forgiveness was offered and 
" unity was restored " to penitent sinners. 
Some were so bold that they would not 
make their repentance to an assembly 
which assumed the divine right to forgive. 
Such was the case of Rebecca Bunker, the 
wife of George Folger, of whom the visit- 
ors reported : " Not being able to come at 
her we treated with her mother and she 

told 



THE DOMINION OF THE QUAKERS 95 

told US she had consulted with her daugh- 
ter and she had rather be disowned than 
to make them any satisfaction " for her im- 
moral offenses. 

Of the many meetings of the society, 
designated by various names, one was 
called the Select Meeting. It was com- 
posed of ministers and elders of both sexes, 
selected because their lives and conversa- 
tions were " clean and blameless amongst 
men," because they were " sound in word 
and doctrine," and " in unity one with 
another." When a man or a woman was 
found to give testimony in an acceptable 
manner, and appeared to be " duly an- 
nointed and qualified," the Select Meeting 
approved such a one as a minister or as 
an elder, and referred the nomination to 
Monthly and Quarterly Meetings. The 
society w^as greatly troubled when it be- 
came necessary to discipline these trusted 
teachers; as, in July, 1725, it called up 
Stephen Wilcock for his disorderly walk- 
ing, which, as the record says, " hath been 
to yt degree yt his testimony is become 
inconsistent & burdensome to ye meeting ; 

& 



96 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

& ye meeting having had a sence of his 
being not fitt to preach, Nathaniel Starbiick 
and Batchellor Hussey are desired to go to 
him & let him know yt ye meeting desires 
he would be silent and not offer his sfift." 
It was recorded in the year 1760 that a 
preacher, John Macy by name, " delivered 
in meeting several censures which are dis- 
orderly, and he asserted divine authority 
for a fact which proved to be not so." He 
said he was willing " to make a verbal ac- 
knowledgment in meeting of the miss he 
made in asserting divine authority." This 
was not satisfactory, and three months later 
his career as a preacher was ended by this 
brief record : *' John Macy to bear no more 
publick testimony." According to tradi- 
tion, the real offense of this minister was 
too many visits to the Presbyterian priest. 
When Boswell told Dr. Johnson that he 
" had been that morning at a meeting of 
the people called Quakers," where he heard 
a woman preach, Johnson replied : " Sir, a 
woman's preaching is like a dog's walking 
on his hind legs. It is not done well, but 
you are surprised to find it done at all." 

Women 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 97 

Women preachers often visited the Nan- 
tucket meeting/ On winter Sundays there 
was a wood fire in the chimney at each 
end of the meeting-house, but it was diffi- 
cult for the worshipers to keep themselves 
warm. Women carried foot-stoves, and 
filled them with coals from the fireplaces 
before taking their seats. Tradition tells 
of a woman preacher from England who 
visited Nantucket in midwinter, when the 
meeting-house was so cold that women 
were constantly going to the fireplaces to 
refill their stoves. This confusion shocked 
her sense of propriety, and she arose and 
said : " Friends, when I came here I ex- 
pected to find a race of hardy women, able 
to endure cold, but I see you are not so ; 
and I have felt while sitting with you that 
before I would disturb a religious meet- 
ing like this, by going to the fire so often, 
I would come to meeting with my feet 

wrapped 

1 Women preachers were recognized by the Quaker church, 
because it was not thought proper for human wisdom to deter- 
mine through whom the Spirit should speak. " The spirit of 
man is the candle of the Lord," was often quoted from the 
Book of Proverbs ; the evidence of Divine authority was " the 
witness of the Spirit." 



98 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

wrapped in sheepskins." Then a woman 
arose and deliberately walked to the fire- 
place, slammed her foot-stove on the hearth, 
took the tongs, knocked off a bed of coals 
from the logs, filled her stove, and walked 
back to her seat, with an action as if to say, 
" That 's for thee ! " 

Thomas Chalkley, a Quaker minister 
who visited Nantucket in the year 1737, 
says in his journal : " The people live in such 
a way that lawyers who plead for money, 
and doctors who prescribe for money, and 
preachers who preach for money have no 
employment on the island." This was the 
scrimping condition of living during the 
early years of the Quaker society, which 
had become the popular form of religious 
life ; cheap in its cost, easy in its profession, 
it now numbered a thousand members, 
nearly nine tenths of the English popula- 
tion. In the year 1755, it numbered two 
thousand, and included the wealthiest peo- 
ple. Samuel Fothergill, a Quaker preacher 
who visited Nantucket in that year, says in 
his journal: "As the richest of the inhab- 
itants embraced the principles of Truth 

from 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 99 

from conviction, the others thought the ex- 
pense of maintaining a priest would be 
too heavy for them, and they have turned 
Quakers to save money." 

In the mechanism of pohtical life there 
was no place for the faithful Quaker. His 
principles forbade him to acknowledge any 
duty to the state. He refused to fight, or 
take up arms to defend the flag under 
whose protection he was living, nor would 
he voluntarily pay any part of the cost of 
employing soldiers and sailors to defend it. 

" I do not see, sir," said Dr. Johnson, 
" that fighting is absolutely forbidden in 
Scripture." 

" The Quakers say it is," replied Boswell ; 
" ' unto him that smiteth thee on one cheek, 
offer him also the other.' " 

" But stay, sir," said Johnson, " the text 
is meant only to have the effect of moder- 
ating passions. We see this from the con- 
text, where there are other recommenda- 
tions which I warrant you the Quakers will 
not take literally ; as, for instance, ' From 
him that would borrow of thee turn not 
thou away.' Let a man whose credit is 

bad 



lOO QUAINT NANTUCKET 

bad come to a Quaker and say, ' Well, sir, 
lend me a hundred pounds,' he '11 find him 
as unwilling as any other man. So in 1 745, 
my friend, Tom Gumming the Quaker, said 
he would not fight, but he would drive an 
ammunition cart." 

"A Quaker," says Coleridge in his " Ta- 
ble Talk," " is made up of ice and flame. 
He has no mean temperature. Hence he is 
rarely interested about any public measure 
but he becomes a fanatic, and oversteps, 
in his irrespective zeal, every decency and 
every right opposed to his course." 

In the year 1 75 7, a tax was levied upon the 
inhabitants of Nantucket for expenses of 
the French and Indian War. A part of this 
tax was known as " soldiers money ; " and, as 
many Quakers refused to pay it, the town 
tax-collector distrained it. The Quaker 
church records give this " account of what 
has been taken from Friends to pay that 
part of the tax called soldiers money: " — 

from Jethro Folger ; four silver 

spoons ;^2.i8.ii 

other silver spoons 1 3. 2 

from John Macy; sundry pew- 
ter 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS loi 

ter things and looking glass, 

worth I.I 2. o 

from Silvan us Worth ; oval ta- 
ble and pair of hand irons 
worth 2. 4. o 

2 pewter platters worth 9. 9 

from Nathaniel Coleman ; one 

silver spoon 10. o 

from William Hussey ; one sil- 
ver pepper box I.I 2. o 

from Barnabas Coleman ; 3 sil- 
ver spoons 1. 1 6. 4 

from William Russell ; i silver 

cup 2. 8. o 

from Joseph Russell ; i silver 

cup & spoon 2.13. 9 

from Jonathan Gardner; i oval 
table, I pair hand irons, 4 
chairs, all worth 2.12. o 

from Nathaniel Gardner ; six 

silver spoons 3. 3. 4 

from William Starbuck ; three 

silver spoons i. o. o 

In the year 1772, Stephen Hussey, a 
member of the Quaker meeting, was 
elected representative from Nantucket to 

the 



I02 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

the General Court of the Province of Mas- 
sachusetts Bay. The meeting noted this 
fact in its records and said : " No Friend 
can, consistent with the rule of Friends' 
Society, sit in that assembly." Committees 
were sent " to labor with him respecting 
his sitting in the General Court," and, as 
they reported " we don't find him disposed 
to make Friends satisfaction," he was pub- 
licly set aside. 

The Quaker church believed that those 
who never use the sword will never need 
the sword, and so the War of the Revolu- 
tion was a trial of its principles. William 
Worth, a member of the church, was dis- 
owned " for going to sea in a prize vessel 
taken in the present war, which we think," 
as was written in the church records, " is 
joining too much with that spirit of plun- 
der whereby such things are acquired." 
Paul Hussey was disowned " for being 
bound to sea & intending to carry guns 
to defend himself and interests." And in 
pursuance of its policy of peace the church 
disowned many of its members at this time, 
for reasons which were stated thus : — 

For 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 103 

For " sailing in an armed vessel." 

For " going to sea privateering." 

For " attending a vendue on a captured 

vessel." 
For " being down at Brandt Point among 

armed men, and he had a gun." 
For " enlisting in the East India Com- 
pany's service at the island called St. 
Helena." 
For being " in some office connected 

with the war in the western parts." 
For " sailing in an armed vessel from 

London." 
For " being engaged in service on board 

a man of war and taking wages." 
For " taking up arms in a warlike man- 
ner." 
For " taking a small arm in pursuit of 
some prisoners who had broken gaol 
of the county." 
Visitors of the Quaker society were ever 
alert to find transgressors, and the num- 
ber of transgressing members whom they 
caused to be disowned, during the latter 
part of the last century, was very large. A 
committee appointed to report " how far 

back" 



I04 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

back " offenses may be searched for, re- 
ported that " no time be set ; " and so they 
trailed Nantucket fore and aft, disturbing 
many people who had been quietly living 
immoral lives under the sober - colored 
cloak of Quakerism. 

The visitors were men and women who 
had outlived the pleasures of youth, and 
whose constant fear was " too much light- 
ness among young people." They called 
John Cof!in to account " for keeping in his 
house a musical instrument called a spin- 
net, and permitting his daughter to play 
thereon." A few months later, John Coffin 
stood up in the meeting and showed his 
penitence by the unmanly declaration that 
he " had no hand in bringing the spinnet 
to his house, and has forbid it ever being 
used there, and is sorry it was brought 
into his house, and that he was a little 
short and rough with the visitors." But 
Keziah Coflfin, when taken to task "for 
keeping a spinnet in her house and per- 
mitting her daughter to play thereon," re- 
fused to repent, and was disowned by 
the Quaker church. Jethro Pinkham was 

disowned 



THE DOMINION OF THE QUAKERS 105 

disowned merely " for keeping a violin to 
play upon." 

Quakers cherished the Puritan's hatred 
of music, merriment, and sports.^ Dances, 
picnics, and moonlight excursions for pleas- 
ure were interdicted on Nantucket; and 
therefore Ichabod Paddock and Latham 
Gardner were disowned for sailing about 
the harbor " in a vessel where dancing was 
performed," and keeping company with 
young women " not of our society." In 
summer time the cliff and beach at Sias- 
conset had the same attractions for young 
people as now. They went there to see the 
ocean rolling towards the island in long 
ridges of deep water, curling over the edge 
of the shoals, and breaking in cataracts of 
foam along the shore. Here the view is 
unbounded : — 

" Eastward, as far as the eye can see, 
Still eastward, eastward, endlessly. 
The sparkle and tremor of purple sea 
That rises before you, a flickering hill, 
On and on to the shut of the sky."- 

For 

1 John Banks, the Quaker preacher, spoke like a Puritan 
when he wrote to his children : " be quiet and sober, not wan- 
ton, nor given to play, nor laughing ; but mind your books and 
go to meetings 1 " 



Io6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

For " allowing a company of young peo- 
ple to dance in his house at Siasconset," 
Thomas Coffin was disowned by the 
Quaker church. Jethro Hussey was dis- 
owned because " he was refractory " when 
the visitors reproved him for " attending 
where fiddling and dancing were carried 
on ; " he confessed " barring my doors, get- 
ting my pen ink and paper, and forbidding 
them to preach to me, and making a com- 
parison between Quakerism and Free Ma- 
sonry." Eunice Worth and many young 
women were " set aside for persisting in 
going to places of amusement where there 
was fiddling and dancing ; " but Phebe 
Bunker, being penitent and in tears, is for- 
given because she is " suffering for having 
been to places of music and dancing tho 
not a partaker therein." 

The discipline of the church compelled 
conformity to certain styles of apparel and 
to peculiar phrases of speech. John Hus- 
sey was disowned for " inconsistent appear- 
ance in dress particularly in wearing his 
hair, and no disposition to make alteration 
therein." Several young men, deciding 

not 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 107 

not to wear their hair " as straight as a 
pound of candles," tied it in cues ; they 
were disowned for " deviating from our 
principles in dress." Deborah Smith was 
set aside because she did " not use the 
plain language," — 

" The thee and the thou of the Quaker." 

Visitors of the church reported that " Deb- 
orah said she did n't think she ever should." 
Discipline fell upon trivial and upon im- 
portant offenses alike. Reuben Gardner 
was disowned for " refusing to submit a 
controversy with his brother to indiffer- 
ent men." Andrew Worth was disowned 
for " throwing oysters out of a vessel with- 
out authority." Timothy Folger was dis- 
owned because he "qualified himself for 
a magistrate ; " Philip Chase, for " having 
been long in the practice of playing cards ; " 
Hepzibah Russell, for " unbecoming treat- 
ment of her husband ; " and Rachael 
Worth, for " turbulent and outrageous be- 
haviour to hers." Seth Ray was disowned 
because he had "gone out in marriage with 
a woman in New Jersey." Others were 

disowned 



Io8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

disowned for " partaking too freely of spir- 
ituous licquors ; " for " launching into busi- 
ness beyond his ability to manage it ; " for 
" marrying too nigh of kin." ^ 

Edward Allen was disowned for putting 
his son as an apprentice " to a man who is 
not a Friend." This discrimination against 
persons of another faith was a bigotry of 
Quakerism. It was like the Pharisee's 
pretensions to superior sanctity. It ap- 
pears in the compulsion of every man and 
woman intending marriage to marry in 
the meeting-house, and to marry a mem- 
ber of the communion. Solomon Coleman 
was disowned for " permitting his daugh- 
ter to be married in his house after the 
manner of the world, and also joining in 
prayer with a priest of another persuasion." 
Mehi table Coffin was disowned because 
she " assisted her daughter on being mar- 
ried in her house by a hireling minister." 

Mary, 

1 Marrying " too nigh of kin " troubled other consciences be- 
sides the Quaker conscience. In Judge Sewall's Memoranda 
of a visit to Martha's Vineyard, April, 1702, he says: "Mrs. 
Thacher on her death bed troubled abt her Marriage to Mr. 
Kemp her first husband. Some smell of Relation between ym." 



THE DOMINION OP THE QUAKERS 109 

Mary, wife of Nathan Coflfin, was disowned 
" for being present at a marriage performed 
by a priest." Ann Husseywas disowned 
for "justifying her daughter in marrying 
a man not in membership with us ; " and 
Peleg Hussey was disowned for " being 
present at the marriage of one of his chil- 
dren performed contrary to the order of 
Friends." Thus, with its laws and con- 
ventions, begetting artificial virtues and 
punishing artificial sins, Quakerism had 
become a tyrant. 

A home-bound whaleman, running in 
towards the island on a foggy morning, 
anchored his ship outside the bar. When 
the fog lifted, it was meeting time. Look- 
ing through his spyglass, he saw crowds of 
people going from all parts of the island to 
the great meeting-house, and he said, " I 
could not keep from shouting at the inspir- 
ing sight." They who see in Quakerism, 
as it was then represented, a high form of 
religious and social life, must feel a shadow 
coming over them as they now walk about 
the island and recall its departed power. 
But, after all that may be said in its favor, 

it 



no QUAINT NANTUCKET 

it was a power that suppressed the natural 
emotions, dulled ambition, destroyed manli- 
ness, and reduced the thoughts and actions 
of men to such a uniform level that one 
searches in vain for any individual great- 
ness during the period of its dominion 
over Nantucket. 

Those plain, square, shingle-sided, un- 
painted houses, whose cold and barren 
look tells of the nearness of the sea, are 
reminders of the Quakerism which ruled 
Nantucket for more than a hundred years. 
It reached its highest grade as the last 
century ended, and soon thereafter it be- 
gan to decline. As it went down the hill 
it was split by internal quarrels into three 
hostile sections, each one calling the other 
spurious. It continued to dwindle and 
dwindle, until at last it was gone from 
the island as completely as " a wind that 
blew a thousand years ago." 



V 

The Missionary frorjt Boston 

While Thomas Story, the Quaker 
preacher, was visiting Nantucket in the 
year 1704, he found at one of his meetings 
a smaller number of people than usual ; 
and he says in his journal that " two priests, 
an elderly man and a young one, the first 
from the isle of Shoals and the other from 
Martha's Vineyard, had a meeting near us 
and several were curious to hear the new 
preacher in the Presbyterian way." Other 
efforts like that mentioned in the Quaker's 
journal were made to establish Presbyte- 
rianism on the island ; but owing to the 
growth and cheapness of Quakerism, which 
paid no wages to its preachers, they were 
not successful until the year 171 1, when a 
little Presbyterian meeting-house was built 
near Nobottom Pond, and a little congrega- 
tion began to worship in it. 

In May, 1725, a young minister who had 

been 



112 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

been educated at Harvard College was sent 
to Nantucket to revive the drooping faith 
of the Puritans represented by this feeble 
society. His name was Timothy White. 
He came from Boston, a missionary zeal- 
ous for good works, and soon after his 
arrival he fell in love with an island girl 
named Susanna Gardner, who was a grand- 
daughter of Captain John Gardner, already 
mentioned in my narrative. In this new 
condition of existence he neglected to write 
to his friends at home ; and one day he was 
aroused by a letter from his sister. Mistress 
Abigail White, who had heard that he was 
" far gone " in an occupation unknown to 
her own experience. To this letter he 
replied : — 

Nantucket, Sept. 15. 1725 

Sister Abi — I must confess you did 
eno' to shame me, by catching at an 
opportunity to write, while I was careless 
to improve the many which presented. 
But you have heard I conclude, altho' 
you don't know by experience, that when 
Persons are stiffly engaged in Courting, 

they 



THE MISSIONARY FROM BOSTON 113 

they are very forgetful of those lesser 
things. 

I know not to whom you were beholden 
for your Information, but I can inform 
you that I was not so far gone in it but 
that I had determined to quit the place 
& all the things in it, till I heard from 
Boston, when your Letter came ; and I 
have not laid my self under such strong 
obligations yet, but that I can easily let 
the action fall if you have anything 
material to object. 

Whether the reason is because my 
Company is so very delightsome & 
charming, or what it is I cant tell, but 
it has been my Portion to be honour'd 
with such suspicions, wherever I have 
yet lived for any time. 

But if this be not true, I could wish it 
were for I am no enemy to proceedings 
of this nature. 

He advises his sister " to improve every 
opportunity for the advancement of your 
temporal good," which may have been in- 
terpreted as a suggestion that she also 
should be " stifHy engaged in courting;" 

but 



114 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

but above all, he says, " you are to be so- 
licitous for the prosperity of your soul." 
This was an advice commonly offered by 
religious letter-writers of those da3^s. 

If Timothy White had " quit the place " 
at that time, he might have been better 
off in the end. The longer he stayed, the 
gloomier became his prospects ; and at the 
close of two years' living on Nantucket he 
was intending to return to Boston, an un- 
married man, when a letter came to him 
from Benjamin Coleman, minister of the 
Brattle Street Church, in that town, written 
on behalf of a committee of " Honorable 
and Reverend Gentlemen," and inclosing 
a gift of ;^ioo, with promise of £^o more 
in two years, to be accepted on these con- 
ditions : — 

First That ye said M' White do will- 
ingly devote himself to ye service of 
Christ & Souls on the Island of Nan- 
tuckett, seriously endeavouring by ye 
help of God for ye space of five years 
to come, to introduce & establish the 
Settlement of a Church state there. 
And secondly. That ye People of Nan- 

tuckett 



THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 115 

tuckett to whom he is & has been min- 
istering due signify to us their desire 
of M' White's continuing & labouring 
among them to this end. 
This encouragement satisfied him ; and 
in September, 1728, he married Susanna 
Gardner, who was seventeen years of age ; 
he was twenty-eight. The next month he 
wrote in his note book : " The Commis- 
sioners for Indian affairs at Boston made 
known to me their desire of my taking 
upon me the charge of a Lecture to the 
Indians upon Nantucket; on my under- 
standing of which I sent an answer in the 
affirmative, and accordingly I begin today." 
He preached to the Indians once or twice 
a month for ten years, and received for this 
labor from the Commissioners £2^ yearly 
in poor money. During this period he 
wrote in his book the date of each preach- 
ing, and the number of Indians in his 
audience; for example, " 1733, began a 6th 
year at Miacomet ; November ist there 
were 23 Indians present; 27th of Decem- 
ber, 23 Indians; 20th of January, 60 In- 
dians ; loth of February, 70 Indians ; 24th 

of 



Il6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

of February, 80 Indians ; loth of March, 60 
Indians; 14th of April, 70 Indians; 20th 
of April, 60 Indians." 

His popularity with the Indian congre- 
gations provoked the ignorant native teach- 
ers, who interfered with his work in such a 
manner that it became necessary for the 
Commissioners at Boston to write to them, 
saying : — 

This is to signify that the Honorable 
Commissioners, of whom His Excellency 
the Governor is one, from whom you 
receive your yearly Salaries, have ap- 
pointed the Rev"^. M^ Timothy White to 
preach Lectures to you, to oversee coun- 
sell & advise you from time to time as 
occasion shall require, and to inspect the 
Schools & Churches & to catechise the 
children & such as are proper for it, & 
you & all concerned are to pay a proper 
regard to him accordingly. 

Pursuant to a vote of the AdAM WiNTHROP 

Commiss''s this is ordered 
to be sent to you. 
Nov. 17th. 1733. 

In the second summer after his marriage 
he was building a house on land given 

to 



THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 117 

to him by his wife's father; it was on the 
highway near Josiah Coffin's house, and the 
garden was " four rods square in the swamp 
near by."^ Two years later, he assumed 
the ofifice of minister to the Httle Presby- 
terian society. For his help in this position 
there came to him from Boston a bundle 
of books, with a letter saying : — 

These four volumes of ye Practical 
works of ye Rev'' Mr Richard Baxter 
are given by Samuel Holden Esq^ Gov- 
ernor of the Bank of England, by ye 
Special Disposition of Benjamin Colman 
Past' of a Church in Boston to the 
Presbiterian Congregation at Nantucket, 
now under the ministry of the Rev*^ Mr 
Timo^ White, on the following condi- 
tons — that ye s^ Mr White & some of 
ye principal members of ye Congregation 
do receive them & keep them safe for 
ye benefit of ye Teacher & Society of ye 
Presbiterians on sd Island, & will be 

responsible 

1 On the south side of Cliff Road, a little east of the Josiah 
Coffin house, is the site of the house built by Timothy White, 
almost due north from the house with the horseshoe chimney. 
Between the White house and the house with the horseshoe 
chimney is the swamp, where was located his garden. 



n8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

responsible for them so as to return them 
in Case the public Worship according to 
the Presbiterian method fails. If there 
be a number of People that tarry at the 
Place of Worship after Sermon, one vol- 
ume shall be kept there for their use if 
it may be with safety. 
The congregation was small and poor, 
paying the minister by voluntary gifts of 
wood, corn, wool, fish, labor, and some- 
times money; so he had to look beyond 
it for the means of living. He opened a 
school, which had no vacations. Quaker 
children did not attend it, as they were 
confined to the schools of the Quaker 
society. The largest number of scholars 
at any time was thirty-four; from each 
scholar he received about ten shillings for 
a term of three months, paid in money or 
its value in hay, corn, firewood, cheese, tal- 
low, or molasses. I copy from his account 
book some of the payments : — 
Reed of James Gardner for 

Schooling i Gall molasses 5s. 

Reed of John Bunker for School- 
ing 60 lbs Cheese 60s. 

Reed 



THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 119 

Reed of Josiah Coffin for School- 
ing Tallow 4s. 
Reed of Sam Ray for School- 
ing 2 tubs 19s. 
Reed of George Brown for 

schooling in Oyl ^4.15.8 

Continuous preaching and teaching pro- 
duced for the poor missionary and his 
family only a small maintenance, which 
he increased by trading in merchandise. 
Friends on the mainland sent to him in- 
voices of cloth, bed-ticking, cotton, flour, 
religious books, almanacs, Watts's Hymns, 
and cider. His account book says : — 
April 1733. Reed from Mr. Brown 
5 bis Cider which is thus sold : — 
John Gardner i bl — at 22 shillings 
John Coffin i bl — at 22 " 
Josiah Coffin i bl — at 22 " 
Robert Coffin 2 bl — at 42 " 



Freit on cyder 1 7.6 



Neat proceeds ^4.10.6 

Reed 



I20 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Reed of above debts 
in wool 50 shillings and 

six pence ; 
in fish 40 shillings =^4.10.6 

June 1733. Reed from Mother White 
one eoverlett sold the same to Josiah 
Coffin to be paid for in wool, £'^. 
Reed the wool and sent it. 
July 1 733. Shipped aboard Capt Wood- 
man for John White of Haverhill to 
be paid for in apples or eyder or 
both — 
on John Coffins aeet — 

4 lb of wool — £\. 2.0 

on John Gardners aeet — 

10 lb wool — i.io.o 

on Timothy Whites aeet — 

37 lb wool — 3-I4-0 

At same time shipped for mother for 
her eloth 166 lb wool. 
He appears to have had the genius of a 
trader. In the year 1735, he sold twenty- 
five almanaes at sixpence eaeh, and fifteen 
" Evidences of Christianity" at two shillings 
and sixpence eaeh, and " laid in for a whal- 
ing voyage " eight barrels of beef. His 

share 



THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 121 

share of the whaling sloop's oil on her first 
cruise was ten barrels, and on her second 
cruise fifteen barrels. From that date he 
was annually shipping whale oil and whale- 
bone to the Boston market. Some of his 
slabs of whalebone weighed eight hundred 
pounds. 

A few extracts taken here and there 
from his book reveal some of the peculiar 
circumstances of his life : — 

Let Eben Cain (an Indian) have 5 

shillings which he promised to pay in 

Feathers within 8 or 10 days. He paid 

the Feathers. 

Let Zach Hoit have a pair of Breeches 

Shirt and Hat. Paid by carting Wood. 

Let Zach Hoit have a Jacket for which 

he is to pay ye next Fall 60 Bushels of 

Corn. 

Cleared with James Ribbin for the 

Boys breaking his window — paying 4 

shillings and in ye Spring i shilling. In 

all 5 Shillings. 

Paid to Jos Daws for Labour i pair 

of knee Buckles 4 shillings. Paid to 

his wife for Weaving 20 shillings. 

Bourt 



122 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Bourt of John Bunker loo lbs of 
Chees @ i shilling and pd in cash 40 
shillings & Schooling 60 shillings. 

Sold to Sylvanus Hussey 722 lbs 
Whalebone besides the 200 weighed 
out by himself. 

Put on board Sylvanus's schooner for 
Boston 34 bbls of Oyl. 

Put on board Andrew Gardner's sloop 
for Boston 18 bbls Oyl. 

Pd to John CoiHn Freit of wood to 
Newburg and apples & cyder from thence 
for sale 80 shillings. 

Sent by Bro Cragie to Pay Couz. Wm 
White for a Piece of Callico and to get 
Sundries for sale £^. 

Reed from Bro Cragie Sundries to 
the value of ^17 for sale. 

Sent to Rhode Island 20 shillings to 
get vin treacle & cocheneal & a piece of 
striped Cotton. 

This day Thomas Dagget of Edgar- 
town informed me that the money (^18) 
which I sent to him the last year for a 
Cow was delivered to him. 

Pd to Mary Barnard, Doct^ /5.1.8, 

and 



THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 123 

and for Phyisick then had 2 shillings 
(June 21, 1749). 

Thomas Hubbard, a merchant of Boston, 
had collected ^24 from a convention of 
ministers, and sent the money to Timothy 
White, with a letter dated in June, 1748, 
saying : — 

Sometime ago D'' Sewall put into my 
hands a letter from yourself represent- 
ing the low circumstances of life your 
situation in the world had exposed you 
to, upon which I communicated the same 
to several of the members of the General 
Court, but found it was beyond their 
power to help you in a public station, 
w^^ I am persuaded they would gladly 
have done if they could ; whereupon I 
returned your letter to the doctor with 
four pounds cash from myself to be sent 
you at the first opportunity. . . . Doct 
Sewall after this communicated your let- 
ter to the convention of ministers who 
readily voted you twenty pounds (old 
Tenor) out of the collection. ... At last 
he put it in my care, & now by Mr Abi- 
jah Folger I have sent you twenty four 

pounds. 



124 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

pounds. ... I heartily wish you health 
& prosperity in your Lord's work & 
hope that some door or other may be 
opened for your comfort and relief. 
But the poor missionary had already dis- 
covered that it was useless to contend 
against the power of Quakerism which was 
ruling Nantucket ; and writing to the Rev. 
John Webb, of Boston, his *' dear brother 
in the Lord," he said his discouragements 
were so great and many that they will 
compel him in a little time " to take leave 
of the poor people " in whose service he 
had spent a great part of his life. A reply 
from his friend promised that the minis- 
ters in Boston would " use their interest 
that you may have a more comfortable 
support." It was only a promise. In June, 
1750, he departed from Nantucket, carry- 
ing with him as a memorial of his mis- 
sionary life the four volumes of Richard 
Baxter's works. " These books," said he, 
" are in my hands, there being no preacher 
on the island when I left ; and as I supplied 
that pulpit for more than eighteen years 
after they were put into my hands, and 

during 



THE MISSIONARY PROM BOSTON 125 

during this term of years lived chiefly upon 
my own means, I am justified in account- 
ing them my own." 

Soon after leaving Nantucket, he under- 
took a commercial business at Haverhill, 
his birthplace, on the Merrimac River. 
His first venture was in loading a vessel 
bound to Philadelphia. For assistance in 
obtaining a return cargo he wrote to Joseph 
Rotch, a Quaker merchant of Nantucket, 
whose reply reflects the nature of Timothy 
White's business, and reminds him that, 
although he had been a trader, he has 
not yet learned " the way amongst mer- 
chants." 

Nantucket, July 3, 1750 

Respect" friend Timothy White — 
I remember that I tould thee I would 
write to my friend at phelladelphia to fill 
Capt Chase up & so I have wrote to 
John Misselin, but if thou art affrade to 
trust to that thou must tell what part of 
the vessel I shal load & gitt a Charter 
party writ for. If I know what part I 
have to load my friend can be gitting it 
Reddy while Capt Chase is doing what 

he 



126 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

he will have to do, but if thou means 
to load what part thou pleases, and not 
tell what part it is, I know no other 
way than to write to my friend to put 
in what is wanting, which I have done. 
As for sending order for such thing it is 
not the way amongst merchants. When 
I sent Capt Chase last year I never had 
any agreement with any man but sent 
him to John Misslen & desired him to 
load him back. Therefore I must have 
a certain part of the vessel or quantity 
of goods now before she goes on. Thou 
must trust to me & my friend to fill the 
vessel up. I am thy friend 

Joseph Rotch. 
In the year 1752, he was doing business 
at Haverhill in the name of Timothy 
White & Company, and was writing to 
Messrs. Stork & Champion, merchants in 
London, that " Being about 150 miles from 
Nantucket I can but seldom get any Intel- 
legence from there of the management of 
my Partners in the sloop Susanna of which 
I own an eighth part." The sloop had 
carried a cargo of oil to London, and he 

desired 



THE MISSIONARY FROM BOSTON 127 

desired the consignees to balance the ac- 
count of his share, and ship what was due 
to him in goods " by Capt. Andrew Craigie 
who is bound to Boston." He writes : — 
I am now scituated in the countrey 
upon Merrimack, commonly called New- 
bury River, about 15 miles above New- 
bury, where we abound with the best of 
Plank & ships timbers, and carry on a 
large stock at building which increases 
yearly, having expert workmen, and do 
build cheaper than either Boston or 
Newbury. We abound also with staves 
both white & red oak, & with boards, 
clap boards & shingle, and are getting 
into the Tarr & Turpentine trade. A 
large countrey just upon our back and 
plenty of some kind of Furrs which 
are transported to England. . . . What 
suits best with us are woolens & Linens 
for mens & womens wear, but none 
high prized, white and black Gloves & 
other mourning, soft Pewter, nails, cutlery 
& Haberdashery. The Liverpool mer- 
chants send over their Iron as well as 
Canvas & Riging for what vessels they 

build 



128 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

build here, this place being very well 
suited for trade upon Merrimack river. 
I 've made a small beginning but find 
money to scarce have thots of entering 
partnership with one or two skillful & 
successful traders especially if it will suit 
you to trade with us for shipping of any 
kind. 

Your humble servant 

Timothy White & Comp. 
At the end of his account books I found 

this paragraph, written by an unknown 

hand : — 

M' Timothy White Dyed at Haver- 
hill about 1 1 o'clock Lord's Day Even- 
ing, February 24th, 1765. 
Although he labored during the best 

part of his life to benefit the people of 

Nantucket, his name is not mentioned in 

their annals. 



VI 

Sea-Journals and Sea-Rovers 

" With sails let fall, and sheeted home, and clear of the ground 

were we ; 
We crossed the bar, stood round the point, and sailed away to 

sea." 

" A JOURNAL of an intended voyage from 
Nantucket by God's permission," — so run 
the opening words of these old books. 
Following this recognition of Him " who 
hath measured the waters in the hollow of 
his hand " are the records of daily events 
at sea ; the direction of the wind, character 
of the weather, run of the log chip, courses 
steered, the latitude and longitude, the oc- 
cupations of the ship's company. Then 
come the last words of the day : " So ends 
this 24 hours all on board in health through 
the blessing of God." 

The pages of these journals have been 
polished by the friction of oily hands ; the 
language is picturesque; and here and 
there quaint words, which passed out of 

use 



13© QUAINT NANTUCKET 

use long ago, come upon the reader like 
a flash-light from the last century. The 
sea-rovers who wrote them were revolters 
against uniform spellings, as if uniformity 
were " a strife against nature." ^ In this 
they were not wrong, for the meaning of 
words is determined not so much by their 
orthography as by their combination and 
place in the text. Voltaire, who derided 
both English and French orthography, 
said : " Writing is the painting of the 
voice ; the closer the resemblance the bet- 
ter the picture." 

The threads that made up the strand of 
Nantucket life were not diverse; in one 
way or another they all wove themselves 
into the sea. For a Nantucket boy, there 

was 

1 " The process of compelling a uniform orthography is, in 
fact, a strife against nature. It is the fault of our current or- 
thography that it is too fixed already. This fixity it is that 
lends force to the clamor which rises from time to time for a 
revolutionary phonetic change. In proportion as spelling is 
rigid, in the same degree it must be unnatural, and therefore 
liable to a breakdown of some sort sooner or later. Language 
is a product of life, and, if not exactly a living thing, it certainly 
shares the incidents of life. Of these incidents none is more 
pervading than abhorrence of fixity." — Professor J. Earle, 
University of Oxford, 1896. 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 131 

was no outlook except across the welter- 
ing ocean ; and on these journal pages he 
worked out his life problems in the mathe- 
matics of navigation. There he wrote 
whatever he ought to know about build- 
ing, rigging, and handling a ship ; the regu- 
lations of foreign ports ; the latitude and 
longitude of noted headlands and harbors ; 
the value of foreign moneys computed in 
pounds sterling; the methods of drawing 
bills of exchange on London. Ambitious 
boys, who began in these journals their 
education for the sea, were thinking of the 
day when they were to take commands 
and become managers as well as naviga- 
tors of ships. 

Such, for example, was George Gardner, 
who was born on the island in the year 
1 73 1, and, having fitted himself for sea, he 
sailed as a sharer in whaling cruises. His 
book begins with his preparatory studies 
ashore ; then follows his sea-journal ; and 
then the record of his services as a justice 
of the peace and collector of the port of 
Nantucket. I will copy a day from his 
journal : — 

Saturday 



132 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Saturday January 21st, 1757. The 
first part of This 24 hours fresh Breases 
of wind S W Intermixed with Rain & 
Snow. wee Spake with Capt John 
Brown from Newfoundland Bound for 
New Lonnon. The wind blew that wee 
Had not much Talk with him but he 
Told us he had been Chased by a French 
Privateer but by Good Luck Lost her in 
the Night. Latt 36-10. Saw 2 large 
Ise Islands hove out our boat and got 
8 Bbls of Ise. Caught several Cod fish 
& had Fry'd Cod heads for supper and 
a glass of wine. So no more at Present 
all being in Health by the Blessing of 
God but no Whale yet. 
Peleg Folger's sea-journals show a Nan- 
tucket sailor of another sort. His name 
was pronounced Pillick, and it exists in 
an old crooning song of Nantucket fisher- 
men, of which this fragment remains : — 

" Old Uncle Pillick he built him a boat 
On the ba-a-ck side of Nantucket P'int ; 
He rolled up his trowsers and set her afloat 
From the ba-a-ck side of Nantucket P'int." 

He began to go to sea when he was 

twenty-one 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 133 

twenty-one years old, cruising yearly be- 
low the Bahamas and beyond the Grand 
Banks of Newfoundland in pursuit of 
sperm whales. In those days whaling voy- 
ages were made in sloops, each manned 
by thirteen men, with two boats. In the 
spring they departed from Nantucket, re- 
turned to discharge their oil, and sailed and 
returned again three or four times before 
winter came. The largeness of the fleet 
in Peleg Folger's time is indicated by a 
remark in his journal of the year 1754: — 
We sailed from Nantucket May 6th 
in company with about 30 sail of whale- 
men and when we anchor'd under the 
East End of Nantucket we appear'd like 
a forest. 

This young sailor was an innovator in 
the current style of sea-journals. He 
opened his first pages with the words : — 
Peleg Folger his hand and Book writ- 
ten at sea on Board the Sloop Grampus 
May 1 75 1 . Many people who keep Jour- 
nals at sea fill them up with trifles. I 
purpose in the following sheets not to 
keep an overstrict history of every tri- 
fling 



134 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

fling occurrence that happens : only now 
and then some particular affair, and to 
fill up the rest with subjects Mathemat- 
ical Historical Philosophical or Poetical 
as best suits my inclination — 

" Qui docet indoctos licet indoctissimus esset, 
Ille quoque breve ceteris doctior esse queat." i 

This preface denotes an individuality, 
which shone out beyond the range of 
other sea-rovers, and leads me to quote 
liberally from his journals. His habit of 
using Latin phrases in them caused many 
jests by his shipmates, one of whom wrote 
in his book : — 

Old Peleg Folger is a Num Scull for 
writing Latin. I fear he will be Offended 
with me for writing in his Book but I 
will Intercede with Anna Pitts in his 
Behalf to make up for ye same — Na- 
thaniel Worth. 

The Grampus sailed from Nantucket 
the loth of April, 1751. The young sea 

philosopher 

1 " He who teaches the unlearned may be most unlearned, 
although he is only a little more learned than the others." This 
maxim was rendered by Pope as follows : — 

" Content if here th' unlearn'd their wants may view, 
The learn'd reflect on what before they knew." 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 135 

philosopher kept silence until May 3d, 

when he wrote : — 

This day we have killed a Spermaceti 
whale which is the first since our De- 
parture from our good Isle of Nan- 
tucket. 

May loth annoque Domini 1751 we 
are bound home, having three small 
Spermaceties in our hold. Latt. 38 
North. We spy'd a sail and Draw'd up 
to her but the Clown would not speak 
with us bearing off S E. 

" When Drake and Cavendish sailed the world about, 

And valiant heroes found new Countries out, 
To Britain's Glory and their Lasting Fame, 
Were we like minded we might do the same." 

May 15th. This day we fell in with 
the South Shoal & made our Dear 
Island of Nantucket and thro Gods 
mercy got round the point in the after- 
noon. So we turn'd it up to the Bar by 
the Sun 2 hours high. In the night we 
got over the Bar — Laus Deo. 

May 1 8th we have got all ready for 
a Second Cruise and Sail'd from our 
wharfe round the point and anchor'd 

under 



136 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

under Sankety Head and the next day 
at 4 o'clock in the morning we weigh'd 
anchor & Stood off to sea. 

June 7th We have got one large 
Spermaceti and have met with nothing 
remarkable. But Content is a continual 
feast. We are headed North and hope 
to be home soon. Deo volente atque 
adjuvente.^ 

June 23*^. We sailed from Nantucket 
Bar through Miskekit channel on our 
third cruise, bound South. 

July i'\ Nantucket bears N E 324 
miles. We had a Good Breakfast upon 
meat and doboys & we are all merry to- 
gether. A ShufHing kind of Breeze — 
only wish we Could get Some Sperma- 
ceties. 

July 6th. This day we spy'd Sperm- 
aceties & we kill'd one. If we get 
Whale enough we may be able to go 
home in a fortnight. Death summons 
all men to the silent grave. 

July 9th. Lat. 36-18 Longt. 73-2. 

Nothing 

1 God willing and assisting. 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 137 

Nothing remarkable this 24 Hours only 
dull times & Hot weather & no Whales 
to be seen. Much toil and labour mor- 
tal man is forced to Endure & little 
profit to be got by it. 

July loth a gale of wind and a large 
sea. We lay by under a trisail. It is 
tiresome to lay by so much, rowling and 
tumbling like the conscience of a wicked 
man. 

July nth. The wind died out and 
the sloop began to rowl and rowl'd her 
lee gunwail under and several times fairly 
floated our boats and stove one. No- 
thing to be seen but the circling skies 
above and the rowling seas below. No 
Whales or Whales tails to be seen nor 
any Whalemen. 

July 14th We have killed two Sperm- 
aceties. Now for home Boys! We 
have 70 barrels full in our Hold — ex 
beneficia divina.^ 

In April, 1752, Peleg Folger sailed from 
Nantucket " with a smart wind at north- 
west," 

1 From the divine clemency. 



138 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

west," beginning the cruise with a perilous 

experience : — 

April 4th we Spy'd Spermaceties and 
we toss'd out our Boat and we row'd 
about a mile and half and then a Whale 
came up under us & stove our Boat and 
threw every man overboard. And we 
all came up and Got hold of the boat 
& held to her till the other boat which 
was two miles away came up and took 
us in. 

April 27th we spoke Beriah Fitch and 
we mated with Beriah and we Struck 
a large Spermaceti and kill'd her. We 
Got her between both Vessels and Got 
a Parbuckle under her and tackles and 
runners to her and we hoised her head 
about 2 foot above water and then we 
cut a Scuttle in her head and a man Got 
in up to his Armpits and dipt almost 
6 Hogsheads of clear oyle out of her case 
besides 6 more out of the Noddle. He 
certainly doth hit the right that mingles 
profit with delight. 

May loth we spy'd a scool of Sperm- 
aceties in the morning and hove out our 

boats 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 139 

boats and struck two and kill'd one 
but the other ran away with one iron in 
her tail. That which we kill'd fiU'd 1 1 
Hogsheads. 

May 13th. We heard a Spermaceti 
blow at 1-2 past 3 in ye morning and it 
still being Dark we hove out our Boats 
and row'd towards ye Sound and about 
20 minutes before the Sun rising we 
struck her. But we could not get in 
a Second iron and so she ran away to 
the Southard & got clear of us. And 
so one Day passeth after another & 
every Day brings us nearer to our Grave 
and all human employments will be at 
an end. 

May 1 6th. in latitude 36:30 North 
We spoke with a cape man who told us 
oyl bore a very Good price in Boston — 
^140 old tenor per tun to be paid in 
Dollars on the spot and the small pox 
which hath been in Boston still con- 
tinues. We spy'd Spermaceties & toss'd 
out our boats & kill'd one which filled 
12 Hogsheads. We stood to the north- 
ward 



I40 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

ward having Got a Good voyage ex di- 
vina beneficia. 

May 2 1 St. a very hard Gale at north- 
east. We carried a trysail foresail & 
Gib and the wind coming on we hall'd 
down our Gib & reef'd him then sat him 
again. But the wind tore him sadly & 
we hall'd him down again and unbent 
him & Got him into the Cabin & 
mended him and stood off under a try- 
sail and foresail till night. 

May 22nd. A very hard gale & a top- 
gallant sea going. We lay to under a 
trysail all day. It is five weeks since 
we left Nantucket, but I am remember- 
ing all the Girls at home and I hope to 
see them soon. 

" Oh that mine eyes might closed be 
To what becomes me not to see ; 
That deafness might possess mine ear 
To what becomes me not to hear; 
That truth my tongue might always tye 
From ever speaking foolishly. " ^ 

In June, 1752, he sailed in the sloop Sea- 
flower, bound to Newfoundland seas ; and 

on 

1 From Ellwood's Wishes. 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 141 

on the 14th of the month he made the land 
and entered " Misketo Cove." There, says 
his sea-journal, — 

the Irishmen curs'd us at high rate for 
they hate whalemen in the Harbour. 
We lay at anchor two weeks and in that 
space of time bore many an oath of the 
Paddies & bog trotters — they swearing 
we should not cut up our Whale in the 
Harbour. But we cut up two and then 
they rais'd a mob under Pike an Irish- 
man who call'd himself Captain of the 
Harbour, and fired upon us & tho the 
shot struck all around us, but through 
mercy hurt no man. While the sloop 
was anchored we cruised in our boats 
after Whales. We struck a yearling 
and the mother Whale kept by its side 
and presently she was struck. We kill'd 
her by much lancing. In her flurry she 
came at our boat and furiously ran over 
us and oversot us & made a miserable 
rack of our boat in a moment. A won- 
der it was that we all had our lives 
spar'd for divers of us were sadly puz- 
zled under water. 

August 



142 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

August 15 th. Yesterday we set sail 

from Cape Race for Nantucket. There 

was a fresh gale of wind right aft and 

we took two reefs in the mainsail and 

she went like a Blaze all night. 

In May, 1753, Peleg Folger sailed from 

Nantucket in the sloop Greyhound, bound 

for Davis Straits. Soon after leaving port 

he fell in with a schooner from the West 

Indies bound to Boston, and he wrote in 

his journal : — 

We went aboard the schooner and got 
two bottles of Rum and some limes and 
sugar and oranges. Then we spy'd a 
scool of Spermaceties and Kill'd one. 
There hath been a jumbling sea today. 

May 26th we struck soundings on y^ 
Grand Banks of Newfoundland. We 
saw several ice islands and we saw sev- 
eral ships. The weather is freezing cold, 
days long, nights short, our Cabins our 
delight, the fire pleasant, our allowance 
to every man his belly full & more if 
he wants. Alas ! if it were not for hopes 
the heart would fail. Lat 58:57 Long 
51:46. 

June 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 143 

June 20th We saw eight whales and 
our skipper struck one which stove his 
boat so that she oversot and the Whale 
ran away. We struck another which also 
ran away. So there is two shot of craft 
and a stoven boat in one day. 

June 2ist We saw some whales and 
struck one and we soon made her spout 
Blood and she was a long time dying. 
But at last she dy'd and we cut her head 
off. The wind blew so that we could 
not cut her up — a large swell going, the 
cable parted and the Whale is gone 
with about one third of the blubber. 

June 24th. We cleaned our Whale- 
bone and stowed it away. It measured 
8 foot 3 inches. We chased right 
Whales and Spermaceties today but 
could not strike. 

A Right Whale is very large, hollow- 
ing on the back, all slick & smooth, 
having no hump at all as other Whales. 
The bone (of which is made stays and 
hoop'd petticoats) doth grow in their 
mouth. The tongue is monstrous large 
& will commonly make a tun of oyl. He 

has 



144 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

has two spout holes and makes a forked 
spout whereby he is distinguished from 
other Whales at a distance. 

A Spermaceti will make from lo to 
lOO barrels of oyl. He has no bone in 
his head & his brains is all oyl. He has 
a hooking hump on the after part of his 
back, one spouthole, and his under jaw 
is full of ivory teeth and his tongue is 
very small. 

June 26th. Ye wind at N E with some 
snow, we handed our mainsail and set 
our trisail, and let her jog to the east- 
ward under trisail, foresail & Gib in hopes 
to find our Dead Whale. At 6 a. m. 
while we were pouring some Chocolate 
down our bellies, our partner Elisha 
Coffin, who was lying by, hove out a 
Boat & rowed to windward & when we 
came to discover what they was after it 
proved to be our Dead Whale which we 
lost the other day. So we soon got her 
alongside. Lat. by obs. 60-24. 

We are all in health & so oyly yt we 
are in a Doleful Pickle (ut aiunt) ^ We 

had 

1 As they say. 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 145 

had a haglet stewpye for supper ; about 
8 at night we finish'd trying out our 
Blubber & put out the fire of our caboose. 
We sandrove our oyl and stow'd it away 
in the hold, & quoined it ; our Whale 
made 68 barrels. 

June 30th. This day we had corn'd 
fish for dinner Pancakes for supper & 
Chocolate for Breakfast, the sea a little 
chopling and we lay under a trysail. 

July 2^. We lay to all this 24 hours 
under a trisail & drove to the Northward. 
The sea broke like a surfe & appear'd 
like a snowdrift. And we ship'd many 
tuns of water ; our lee boat had been 
stove had we not manhandled her when 
she kanted on her gunnel & lash'd 
her. Our quarter deck was sometimes 
ancle deep & our tub of gravel got stove 
to pieces so we shall be forced to kill 
our fowl for fear they 1 die. We had 
pancakes for supper. Lat. 60-30. 

July 14th. We spoke with a ship 
from Glascow. Elisha came on board 
of us & we had a fowl stewpye and a 
great Plum pudding for dinner. Then 

we 



146 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

we spy'd whales & we kill'd one large 
spermaceti & we got her alongside & 
began to cut upon her. 

July 17th. We spoke a Dutch ship 
& our skipper & mate went on board 
her. They had an Indian & his Canoe 
on board & intend to Carry him to 
Holland & bring him back next year. 

August 20th. Whales plenty. Hove 
out our boats and killed one. We 
struck two that ran away. We struck 
another off the bow and put two irons 
in her. She going to windward broke 
a warp and so away she went. We sot 
the tryworks agoing and we soon had a 
flaming torch under the caboose, but 
seeing Whales we put out our fires and 
went off & kill'd a large Spermaceti. 

September loth. It is 124 days since 
we have seen any land until to-day. 
Cape Race bears West by North 4 
leagues. We are bound home & the 
wind is right ahead, but we must be 
contented let the wind be as it will. 

September 19th. Rain and thunder 
and lightning. We hall'd down our 

mainsel 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 147 

mainsel and balanc'd & reef d him and 
let the sloop jog along. At night it was 
as blacke as ink. So we lay a hull. Lat. 
42:9 — Long. 61:52. 

September 22^. This day we struck 
Soundings on St. Georges Bank. Nan- 
tucket bears west 50 leagues. We shall 
soon see the land — even our Dear 
Nantucket — So dayday both latitude 
and longitude. 

Let us make one more whaling cruise 
with Peleg Folger. I will quote from his 
sea-journal of the year 1757, in the time of 
the French and Indian War : — 

June 1 8th. We saw a very large 
Scool of Spermaceties but they Ran like 
Horses insomuch that tho' we hove our 
Boats & Stroved faithfully yet we could 
not Strike. We saw a Ship off in the 
S E and she stood for us and rather 
wind fretted us — she being an extraordi- 
nary good sailer. So we stood into the 
N W and the wind starting in our favour 
we wither'd him about a mile. At Sun- 
set we brought to under a Trysail. 
July I St. This day Whales are very 

plenty 



.8 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

plenty and we kill'd one that fill'd 15 
Hogsheads. We saw a topsail vessel 
and we immediately made sail. It being 
very windy and a large sea going we 
carried away one of our shrouds. But 
we got up our tackles and runners in the 
room of our Shroud & setting 3 sails 
atanto we made our sloop buckle again. 
At the first hank we wither'd our sup- 
pos'd Frenchman about 3 miles & then 
we discovered a vast fleet of Ships & 
other vessels to leeward. They appear'd 
like a meer forest on the Ocean. How 
many there was we know not. We 
judged them to be an English fleet 
bound for Canada or Cape Breton. 

July 3*^ we saw a Snow but we did not 
care to Speak with her so we Sprung 
our Luff and wither'd her about a mile. 
We judg'd her to be some Fellow bound 
into Virginia or Somewhere Else. 

July loth. Very rough Weather & 
we are under a Square sail right before 
a fresh S W wind. We spy'd a Sperm- 
aceti close under our Bow & we got out 
3 lances in order to kill her if we could 

but 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 149 

but She went down just before we got 
up with her. Experience may teach us 
that Nothing can make a man happy 
save a Quiet Conscience. About Sun- 
set the wind had dy'd and the Sea had 
grown very smooth. We let run our 
Deep Sea Lead & had about an hun- 
dred & ten fathoms with the Stray which 
might be ten fathoms. We brought up 
on our Lead 3 or 4 Living Creatures a 
little more than an Inch long. They 
have four horns growing out from the 
Crown of the head : they had two Claws 
or Legs forward & Six towards his hinder 
parts : their Legs are very full of Joynts 
& appear to end in a Perfect Point & 
toward the end looked like white ivory. 
July 13th. We were on the Grand 
Bank of Newfoundland & we stood off 
to the Eastward and about Sunset by 
the sound of the Horns — it being very 
thick of fog — we found two vessels who 
were Timothy Gardner and Richard 
Gardner who told us John Coffin had 
got about 100 Barrels and Uriah Coffin 
about as much. So we stood off in 

company 



150 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

company with our mates & at 1 1 o'Clock 
we let run our Lead and found no Bot- 
tom & so we Brought to under a Try- 
sail & Foresail, being very thick of Fog 
and a small wind. 

July 18. We spoke with two French 
ships who were fishermen & told us 
Cape Race bore Northwest. We saw 
divers more ships that we did not speak 
with & at 10 p. M we brought to for fear 
of them — it being exceeding dark. We 
took ye Sun's amplitude at his setting 
& found ye variation of the Compass to 
be 1} points nearest. Lat 45:19 Long 
48:50 (848 miles from Nantucket). 

July 30th. We struck a large Sperm- 
aceti & put into him three irons & one 
towiron. As soon as the towiron went 
into the whale he gave a flauk & went 
down, & coming up again he bolted his 
head out of water, as far down as his 
fins, and then pitch'd the whole weight 
of his head on the Boat and stove ye 
Boat & ruin'd her & kill'd the midship- 
man (an Indian named Sam Samson) 
outright. A sad & awful Providence. 

August 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 151 

August 7th. Fine weather but no 
Whales to be seen. From no' clock 
to 1 2 at night the sky glitter'd with the 
Northern Lights, appearing Very bright 
& luciferous like streaks of lightning. 

August 20th. We spy'd a Sperm- 
aceti and struck her off the Bow & then 
we hove out our Boats & kill'd her & 
got her along side & cabled her and be- 
gan to cut her up. There was a chop- 
ling sea going & but little wind. Our 
sloop girded most Violently & we parted 
one of our Runners twice & spHt the 
blocks & hurt one of our men &: made 
most Rucking work. At midnight the 
wind began to blow hard at N E and 
soon raised a bad sea. We parted our 
cable and lost our Whale from ye Bow. 
At 5 in the morning we Blew away our 
trisail & tore him out of the Boltropes 
and Ruined him entirely. 

August 2 1 St. We made sail & found 
our Whale and cut up the Remainder. 
Her body fill'd 24 hogsheads. Lat 
45:52. We blew away our foresail & 
we got a new one out of the hold & bent 

him, 



152 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

him, but did not set him for the wind 
shifted all at once and blew like a Scum. 
After a while we set our foresail and 
went like a Blaze to the westward. 

August 30th. Running to the west- 
ward, being thick of fog & we saw a 
noble Right Whale close under our 
counter, We hove out our Boats to strike 
but she soon ran us out of sight in the 
fog. We spoke with a sloop from Barn- 
stable. He told us Fort Henry was 
taken. I hope soon we shall have a 
free wind and go with flowin sheets for 
we know not how far we are to the East- 
ward of the Grand Banks of Newfound- 
land. 

September ist. A smart gale of wind 
at N E & We are scouting merrily west 
by Compass. In the afternoon We 
struck soundings on the Grand Bank 
and catch'd 20 noble codfish. We have 
run 168 miles today. We are all in 
health and hope to see our Dear Nan- 
tucket in a short time. 
This sea-rover ends his journal by quot- 
ing from Francis Quarles : — 

"My 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 153 

"My Sins are like the hairs upon mine head, 
And raise their audit to as high a score. 
In this they differ — these do dayly shed ; 
But ah ! my Sins grow dayly more and more. 
If by mine hairs Thou number out my Sins, 
Heaven make me bald before the day begins. 

" My Sins are like the sands upon the shore, 
Which every ebb lays open to the eye. 
In this they differ — these are cover'd o'er; 
But ah ! my Sins in View still open lie. 

Lord, if Thou make my head a sea of tears. 

Oh ! that would wash away the sins of all my years. 

" My Sins are like the stars within the skies, 
In View, in number, full as bright, as great. 
In this they differ — these do set and rise ; 
But ah ! my Sins do rise but never set. 
Rise, Son of Glory, and my Sins are gone 
Like clouds or mists before the morning Sun." 

There was a young sea-rover of Nan- 
tucket who began his first journal, in the 
year 1754, with these words : — 

" Peter Folger his Book 
God give him Grace therein to Look. 
Not only to Look but Understand 
That learning is better than House or Land. 
The Rose is Red the Grass is Green 
The days have past which I have Seen." 

This inscription tells how much of a 
boy this rover was when he first went to 
sea. In time he grew manly, and his sea- 
journal 



154 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

journal of the year 1761 begins with these 
words : — 

A Journal of our Intended Voyage 
by Gods Permission in the Good Sloop 
Endeavour. We sot Sail from Nan- 
tuckett the 9 day of July and went over 
the Bar and Come to Anchor and waited 
for our Indians. 

July ye 26 we saw a large School of 
Spalmocities. They ran so Fast we 
could not Catch them. 

July ye 27 we saw 3 Sparmocityes & 
killed one and Cut Her up. 

July ye 28 we saw 4 or 5 Spalmoctyes 
we Tryed our whale Her Boddy made 
38 bb^ Her Head 12 hh^^" 

July ye 29 we Stoed away our whale. 
We saw 2 Sloops to the Easterd of us 
and we saw divers Sparmocities and we 
struck one and maid Her Spout Blood. 
She went down and their came a Snarl 
in the Toe line and catched John Mey- 
rick and over sot the Boat and we never 
saw him after wards. We saved the 
whale. 

August ye 14 we killed a Sunfish and 

we 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 155 

we saw a School of Sparmocityes and our 
Partner killed one and Got her kableed 
and we killed another and saw two Ships 
to windered ye wind at S W and our 
Partner cut from his whale and we cut 
from ourn abute 9 of Clock in ye morn- 
ing. We stood to ye N E and our Part- 
ner stood to ye S E — one Ship took us 
in Chase and ye other took our Partner 
in Chase. We clapt away large and sot 
our Square Sail and Topsail and got our 
fairsail under the Boom and made all 
ye Sail we could and brought her to 
winderd and we held her toit and she 
fir** a Gun at 4 O'Clock in ye after Noon 
and at 6 under English Coulers She 
left us and stood to ye S W and we 
stood to N E. We have lost our Con- 
sort because these Ships they chased us 
from 9 in ye Morning till Sun Sett. So 
ends ye Day all in Good health by God's 
Blessing. 

In the latter part of the last century, 
ships of three hundred tons burden took 
the place of small sloops in cruises for 
whales ; they went below the equator, and 

at 



156 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

at last found their way around the capes 
into the Pacific and Indian oceans. Two 
of the ships that brought the obnoxious 
tea to Boston, in December, 1773, were 
whaling -ships of Nantucket. They had 
carried their catches from the South Seas 
to London, and were returning home with 
general merchandise by way of Boston. 
After unloading cargoes at that port, — 
excepting the tea, which was thrown into 
Boston harbor by a mob disguised as 
Indians, — the ships sailed to Nantucket, 
where one of them, the Beaver, was fitted 
for a cruise in the south Atlantic ; and 
another, the Dartmouth, was loaded with 
sperm oil and sent to London just before 
the American Revolution began. 

Nantucket whalemen were ruined by the 
Revolution. After the war was ended, 
sperm oil, for which England had been the 
principal market, was taxed an alien duty 
of ;^i8 sterling per ton ; and therefore it 
became necessary for the people of the 
island to make some new adjustment of 
their whaling business. There appeared 
no alternative but to transfer it to England. 

With 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 157 

With this object in view, William Rotch, 
a successful merchant of Nantucket, sailed 
for London in his ship Maria, July 4, 1785, 
accompanied by his son Benjamin. He 
visited the Channel ports in search of a 
suitable location for the whaling business, 
selected Falmouth, and then made his pro- 
posals to the British government. Not 
meeting with success, he crossed the Chan- 
nel to Dunkirk in France, where, aided 
by Shubel Gardner, of Nantucket, who had 
been a prisoner in England, and by a na- 
tive of Dunkirk, named Fran9ois Coffyn, 
who served as an interpreter, his proposals 
were written to the French government 
and sent to Paris. He stipulated for liberty 
to emigrants from Nantucket to worship 
as Quakers ; for their exemption from 
military duty ; for a bounty per ton on 
Nantucket ships engaged in whaling from 
French ports ; the free entry of their oil ; 
and that the ships should be commanded 
by Nantucket men. His proposals were 
accepted, and he sailed for home in Decem- 
ber, 1786, to prepare for a transfer of his 
whaling business to France. 

England 



158 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

England reduced the import duties on 
oil, and France failed to pay the bounty ; 
then the French Revolution came, with 
its compulsory oath and military service, 
bringing trouble to the Quakers at Dun- 
kirk. On the loth of February, 1791, 
William Rotch, Benjamin Rotch, and a 
French Quaker named Marsillac appeared 
(with their hats on) ^ before the National 
Assembly at Paris, over which Mirabeau 
was presiding, and asked permission to 
present a memorial explaining the Quakers' 
objection to taking an oath and bearing 
the arms of war. Their memorial was 
referred to a committee, and in the follow- 
ing September the original engagements 
with Nantucket whalemen were confirmed 
by the Assembly. 

In March, 1788, the ship Penelope, of 

Nantucket, 

1 " If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin." From 
these words of the Epistle by St. James, George Fox taught 
that it was forbidden by the Lord to bow to any person cere- 
moniously, or to remove one's hat as a token of respect. His 
followers accepted this teaching ; and for a long time it was 
a question, marked by bitter strifes in the Quaker churches, 
whether it was right for men to remove their hats during the 
time of prayer. 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 159 

Nantucket, sailed from Dunkirk for the 
Arctic Ocean, in pursuit of whales, and 
passed beyond the high latitude of seventy- 
nine degrees. I copy a few passages from 
the sea-journal of Tristram Gardner, of 
Nantucket, commanding the ship : — 

Wednesday March ye 26th 1788, at 
2 in the morning Left ye Port of Dun- 
kirk & Anchard in ye Road, at 2 Past 
merid° waid ancher & Stood S by E 
with ye wind at E by N. at 6 we ware 6 
Leges from Dunkirk. 

Tuesday aprel ye First Day 1788 
trying for A harber at Shetland, at 6 
ye wind Shifted from S W to N W blod 
fresh, at 12 ye wind died we maid Sail 
wirking in with ye Land, at 6 Pilot 
came on board at ye mouth of ye harber. 
Came to ancher in Erase bay whare we 
found 24 sail of ships. 

Wednesday Aprel ye 9th 1788 at 10 
waid ancher & Put to sea from Erase 
bay in Company with 4 ships wind S W 
bound for Greenland. A crabed sea from 
ye westward. Latt. 62:13. Long 34 W 
Thirsday Aprel ye 24th Fresh wind 

at 



l6o QUAINT NANTUCKET 

at South we Lying to ye W S W under 
Close Reef Topsails in company with 
a number of ships. Saw Ise & Spake 
with a Ship from London, at 4 Past 
Merid'' saw ye Land hairing E by S we 
Run through sum Ise & found clear 
water. Lat 77 Long 10 No whales. 

Friday May ye 2""^ ye First Part of ye 
day ye wind N E. Clost Refd our Top- 
sails, at 1 2 ware Clost beset with heavi 
Pack Ise so that we had No yuse for 
sails but Got 2 warps to ye Ise to bring 
our ship starn to ye wind. Later Part 
still Clost beset & 20 Sail of Ships in ye 
same Condison. Latt by Obs. 77-07 ye 
Land in Sight. Saw one Rite whale. 

Wednesday May 7th brought our 
Ship by ye starn & mended our Cut- 
water whare ye Ise had Cut it to ye 
Stem & Stove of two Knees. 50 Ships 
in Sight & all in ye Ise. Stowd down 
our water Fil'd some salt water for bal- 
lace. Lat. 77-22. 

Monday June ye 2 Day Saw Sum 
whales hardby but the weather being 
bad could not Ingage — bloing hard 

with 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS i6l 

with snow. Lay back & forth under 
Clost Reef^ Fore Topsail, Saw two Racks 
wich was Stranded ye Last Gale one 
was ye London of London ye other was 
a Ship belonging to Whitbe — ye Men 
saved. Saw whales among ye Ise could 
Not come at them. loo sail of Ships 
in sight. Lat 78. 

Sonday June ye 8th Kil'd a ten feet 
bone Whale. Mated with Capt Mooers 
& Strook a Whale that run out our 
line. Got our Whale on board. Bloing 
fresh we maid Sail ye Ise near by to 
Luard & very heavy. 

Saturday June ye 14th we Kil'd two 
Whales. A trying our whale. A fresh 
wind and Snow. Lat. 78-44. 

Sonday June ye 22 A rugged sea. 
Plenty of Snow. Saw ye Ise to ye S W 
of us. Thick weather. Saw a number 
of Ships but no Whales. Lat. 79-02. 

Monday July ye 21 Maid ye Land 
which Prouvd to be ye Norway Shore 
10 Leags Distant. Spake with a Brig 
from Sligo. Caut sum mackerill. Spake 
with a Ship from Norway bound to Hull. 

Saturday 



1 62 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Saturday August ye 3 day Course S 
by W at 9 o'clock maid ye South Fore- 
land so we bore away for Dunkirk at 
meridian took our Pilot on bord ye tide 
being up we Put over ye bar, and so 
came to an Anchar. 

The men of the little island of Nan- 
tucket were natural sea-rovers, for whom 
the charms of home were charming only 
in the short intervals between their voy- 
ages. After they had gone to sea their 
wives adopted a penurious style of house- 
keeping, in order to save money for the 
beloved sea-rover against his return. Per- 
haps he did not return at the expected 
time ; born with an instinct for adventure, 
his absence may have been prolonged by 
repeated cruises on distant seas, and wan- 
derings on distant shores, until the Nan- 
tucket home had been effaced from his 
thoughts. And when, like a new Ulysses, 
he came back to it after many years of 
absence and silence, there was no reason 
for surprise if Penelope, tired of waiting 
for him, had finished her weaving and had 

accepted 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 163 

accepted an importunate suitor to fill his 
place. 

Shubel Worth, a sea-rover of the true 
blue, was cruising in the South Seas when 
the War of the Revolution began. On ar- 
riving at Nantucket he learned that his 
wife and children had left the island and 
gone to find a safe retreat in her father's 
house, in Saratoga County, New York. 
As the war prevented him from going to 
sea again, he followed his family, bought 
a farm, and cultivated it. One day, after 
the return of peace, he drove a load of his 
farm's produce to the village of Hudson, 
expecting to sell it and return to his home 
within three days. 

Three days, three weeks, three months, 
three years passed ; — " and where was 
Enoch ? " He had not obliterated himself 
from human society, as did the "strong 
heroic soul " portrayed in Tennyson's poem, 
but he had suddenly gone a-sea-roving. 
On arriving at Hudson, and learning that 
a ship was fitting out at New Bedford for 
a whaling cruise along the coasts of Green- 
land, he put his farm produce aboard a 

sloop, 



164 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

sloop, sailed with it to New Bedford, sold 
it to the outfitters of the Greenland ship, 
and went to sea in her as first ofificer. The 
ship ended her voyage at Dunkirk. Here 
he took command of the ship Criterion, 
and sailed on a cruise to the Indian Ocean. 
Returning to Dunkirk with a cargo of oil, 
he sailed again; cruised on the Pacific 
Ocean, and carried another cargo of oil to 
Dunkirk. At the end of the last voyage 
he returned to his home, from which he 
had been absent five years instead of three 
days. The restlessness of the sea-rover 
was in him, and he went to sea again, but 
he never returned home. He died on 
board his ship while she lay at anchor in 
the harbor of the island of St. Helena. 

I copy two or three days from his sea- 
journal, written while cruising in the In- 
dian Ocean : — 

Ship Criterion, May 19th — at 4 PM 
took a Lunar observation, found our 
Longitude io7°-32' East of London 
Latitude is 7°-38' South. Land bareing 
N E to N W 8 Leages — fine weather all 
drawing Sail Set. Steard for the Land. 

Saw 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 165 

Saw a School of Spermaceties headed 
off Shore. 

Friday May 22"^. Lay'd off & on the 
Land till day Light then Steard for Java 
Head bareing N N W 4 Leagues distance. 
At 6 p M Came to anchor in 25 Fath- 
oms. Got up the boarding Neting. 
Got under way for Mew Isle watering 
place. Sent the yawl ashore to find the 
water. Saw a number of men on the 
Isle. Before the boats Got at Shore 
Saw 10 Prowes coming for us. Saw 
theare Guns Glittering. Set the coulers 
to the Ship & fired one 4 Pounder. 
The Prowes fired a Number of guns 
at us. Got under way and set all Sail. 
So ends all well. 

Wednesday May 25th. Came to an- 
chor in 23 Fathoms water. Got in Red- 
dyness for Battle with the Pirot Maylays. 
Saw a great Number of Maylay fishing 
boats. Got under way for Anger Rhodes. 
At 6 p M came to anchor — Batavia 
Church baring N N W. 
A sea-rover was David Brown, of the 

ship 



1 66 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

ship Manilla. I quote one day from his 
sea-journal in the South Atlantic Ocean : — 
December ist 1791. Down a boat 
and caught a Sea Dog. Running S W 
with two ships bearing West, one a try- 
ing. Saw whales and gave chase. Hove 
to under 3 staysails headed to the south- 
ward. At I p M saw whales. Killed 3 & 
at 5 p M came on board without any. 
Went off again & kill'd one and took her 
a long side. Spoke William Bunker 
with 600 Barrels. Lat. 37-20 S. 
A sea-rover of Nantucket made a dis- 
covery in the South Pacific Ocean which 
is still a theme of history. In January, 1 789, 
the British ship Bounty sailed from Otaheiti 
with a crew whose attachments to the 
women of that tropical island made them 
reluctant to leave it. Soon after sailing, 
twenty-five mutineers seized control of the 
ship, and sent adrift in a boat the com- 
mander with his officers and the loyal 
members of his crew. The mutineers 
sailed the Bounty back to Otaheiti, where 
sixteen of them landed with the expecta- 
tion of leading lives of endless enjoyment. 

The 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROYERS 167 

The nine who did not land took aboard 
nine women of the island as wives, and six 
men as servants, and then they sailed away. 
What became of them was a mystery for 
nineteen years, or until Mayhew Folger, 
of Nantucket, cruising for whales in the 
ship Topaz, fell in with Pitcairn's Island, on 
a February morning of the year 1808. This 
island, which is about two miles wide and 
three miles long, rises abruptly from the 
deep sea to the height of a thousand feet. 
On a plateau, four hundred feet above the 
ocean. Captain Folger found a little pas- 
toral village peopled by descendants of the 
nine mutineers of the Bounty and their 
Otaheitian wives. I quote from his sea- 
journal : — 

Saturday February 6th i8o8. At 2 
A M saw Pitcairn's Island bearing South. 
Lay off and on till daylight. At 6 a m 
put off with 2 boats to explore the land 
and look for seals. On approaching the 
shore saw smoke on the land at which I 
was very much surprised as the island 
was said to be uninhabited. I discovered 
a boat paddling towards me with three 

men 



1 68 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

men in her. They hailed in the Eng- 
lish language & asked who was the cap- 
tain of the ship. They offered me gifts 
of cocoanuts & requested I would land, 
there being a white man on shore. I 
went ashore & found an Englishman 
named Alexander Smith, the only per- 
son remaining out of nine that escaped 
on board the ship Bounty. Smith in- 
formed me that after putting Capt Bligh 
in the long boat and sending her adrift, 
Christian their chief proceeded with the 
ship to Otaheiti. There all the muti- 
neers chose to stop except Christian, 
himself, and seven others, who took 
wives and also six men as servants, 
and immediately proceeded to Pitcairn's 
Island where they landed all the goods 
and chattels, ran the Bounty on shore 
and broke her up. This took place, as 
near as he could recollect, in the year 
1790: soon after which one of their 
party ran mad and drowned himself, an- 
other died of a fever ; and after they 
had remained about four years on the 
island, their men servants rose up and 

killed 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 169 

killed six of them, leaving only Smith 
alive, and he desperately wounded with 
a pistol ball in the neck. However he 
and the widows of the deceased arose 
and put all the servants to death, which 
left him the only surviving man on the 
island, with eight or nine women and 
several small children. He immediately 
went to work tilling the ground so that 
it produces plenty for them all, and he 
lives very comfortably as commander-in- 
chief of Pitcairn's Island. All the chil- 
dren of the deceased mutineers speak 
tolerable English. Some of them are 
grown to the size of men and women, 
and to do them Justice, I think them 
a very humane and hospitable people; 
and whatever may have been the errors 
or crimes of Smith the mutineer in times 
back he is at present a worthy man and 
may be useful to navigators who traverse 
this immense ocean. I tarried on shore 
with the friendly Smith and his truly 
good people till 4 p. m. and then left him 
and went on board the Topaz and made 
sail steering for Masafuera, having re- 
ceived 



170 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

ceived from the people on shore some 
hogs cocoanuts and plantains/ 
The wars provoked by Napoleon touched 
the whaling-ships of Nantucket in many 
ways. In the year 1808, England was al- 
lied with Spain in a war against France, 
and defeated the French army at the bat- 
tle of Talavera in June, 1809. Whaling- 
ships were now armed ; and because they 
carried arms and large crews they were 
sometimes arrested on the high seas under 
suspicion that they were belligerents dis- 
guised as whalemen. A story of such an 
arrest is told in the sea-journal of Captain 
Charles Gardner, who was cruising the 
ship Argo in the South Seas. I copy it ex- 
actly as it was written in the journal : — 
1809 Sunday November 5 in Lat. 
17-27' South. Standing in by the Wind 
East at 2 p M saw a Ship 2 points off 
. the Weather bow. Saw that She had all 
Sail out and coming for us. Steerd on 
til She was of the Starboard beam then 

up 

1 After this visit by Captain Folger, Smith changed his name 
to John Adams, by which name he has been called in histories 
of the mutiny of the ship Bounty. 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 171 

up Corses and backed the main yard. 
She came within hail and ordered a boat 
onboard with the papers. I sent the 
boat and the cheaf Mate with the papers. 
He was detained onbord the Private 
Spanish Ship of war & all the boats crue 
but one was Stoped and two officers and 
boats Crue from the Spanish Ship Came 
onboard the Argo & Sent more of my 
hands onboard the Vultor. At 7 p m 
they onbent the Mainsail and the boat 
Came from the Vulter with more Span- 
ish men & took Charge of the Argo and 
wore Ship and Steerd on a wind to the 
South all night in company with the 
Vulter. At 7 A M Shortened Sail and 
lay by. The Capten of the Vulter Came 
onboard and brot the Argos papers that 
I had sent by the mate & asked me if 
I knew them. I told him I did. He 
wished for a Candle which was brot him. 
He told me all other papers would be 
of no youse to me hear after and in my 
presance Sealed the papers up. I asked 
him if it was war. He told me that was 
none of my Business. I Should See & 

would 



172 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

would give me no Satisfaction but told 
me to go on Deck which we ded and he 
Looked at the Ship. 

He asked how many guns I had. I 
told him. He asked why I run from 
him to Luard. I told him I did not, he 
told me I did and a Whale Ship had 
no business with guns — and where the 
guns was. I told him Some in the hole 
& some on Deck, he in a ruf tone told 
me I had mounted them 4 on Deck 
after Seeing him. I told him no — he 
told me he new better than that. After 
a little time on Deck he told me he 
wished to go below in the Cabin and 
look about the Ship. I told him any 
part he wished to See Should be Shone 
him. He told his ofificers and men to 
open the after hachway and brake up 
the hole to the eilson — and Capt & 
Some men brock up the run & took all 
the casks out, and all the powder out 
of the magersean, and the Officers took 
more than 40 Casks out of the after 
hole and Some out of the main hach 
and oppen'd the Casks of Sails & Bread. 

The 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 173 

The Capten Cut open my Slops with 
his own hand and made me turn up my 
bead and made me take everything out 
of my trunks, and told me my own han- 
kerchefs was Spanish and told me I had 
Money onboard and that I had no Busi- 
ness with guns & with a Drum and that 
I lyed & what I told him was lyes. I 
told him what I told him was truths and 
what ever Construcktions he pleased to 
put on it I could not help, but I never 
was told so before — and he Seamed 
Displeased notwithstanding I ded every- 
thing in my power to Shoe him all parts 
of the Argo and every thing onboard. 

At halfpast 12 three Ships hove in 
Sight and half an hour after the Capt 
went to his own Ship and told me he 
would Send my papers and men, which 
he ded & told my mate I mite go where 
I pleased — but he left the Argo with 
50 or 60 Casks on Deck that they had 
taken out of the hole and much wood 
the Mainsail Laying in a heap on Deck, 
the Ship in grate confution & three 
Ships come for us. 

Monday 



174 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Monday Nov*" 6. First part laying 
by and geting the Decks Cleard. At 
5PM Stod towards the Ships and 
found them to be Whalers and the 
Vulter had Spook them and her boats 
were along Side. We Stod by and ded 
not Speack them Standing to the S S W 
— 4 Ships in Sight to the S S E. Dul 
times and No whales. Latt by Obs" 
i7°-37' South. 

The days of " dull times and no whales " 

did not last long after this privateer had 

left the Argo. As a contrast to her bad 

luck with the Spaniard, I quote one day 

from Captain Gardner's sea-journal : — 

Nov. 25th. At 2 p M saw Sperm 

Whales. Went off and got six. At 

7PM got them to the ship. One boat 

stove. At meridian got aboard five. 

Lite wind. Latt by obsevation iS^-og' 

South. 

These journals of sea-rovers are a valu- 
able accessory to the picture of Quaint 
Nantucket. They reveal the boldness and 
extent of that hazardous business which, 
during a century and a half, enlisted all 

the 



SEA-JOURNALS AND SEA-ROVERS 175 

the wealth and enterprise of the island. 
Now Nantucket is manning no more whale- 
ships, is writing no more sea-journals. The 
days have gone when — 

" There was rich reward for the look-out man, tobacco for 

every sail, 
And a barrel of oil for the lucky dog who 'd be first to raise a 

whale." 



VII 

The Towns Doings 

The doings were done in the town- 
house, a building so old that in May, 1 707, 
the people said " the towne howse should 
be repaired ; " and then they agreed that 
" thursday next should be the day to goe 
a perambelation." Every spring it was a 
custom to perambulate the town, — to walk 
along the boundary lines of public lands 
and note if the marks were standing, or if 
any man had encroached upon them. Men 
who went on the perambulation were, by 
a vote of the town, " to be paid for their 
time." Time was the principal property 
that some of them had to sell. Besides 
these, the perambulating procession, which 
was led by the selectmen, included all boys 
and dogs who were at leisure on the morn- 
ing appointed for the tramp. 

The next yearly routine of importance 

was 



THE TOWN'S DOINGS 177 

was to prepare for " the shearing time," 
which always came in the month of June. 
For this event two men were chosen to 
count the flocks as they went into the 
shearing-pens, to take care of the fleeces, 
to sell the town's sheep, and " receve the 
money for the townes euce," as the clerk 
of the records wrote it. Now and then 
" an assembly man to serve his majesty 
at the great & generall Court at boston " 
was elected, and the names of thirteen 
men " to serve his majesty as jurors " were 
drawn out of a box. Occasionally a land- 
holder applied for permission " to lay 
down " a swamp which had been allotted 
to him, and " to take up " a meadow in its 
place; another asked for the grant of a 
swamp, and got it on condition that he 
" stand out on the next divishon " of pub- 
lic lands. A man who wanted to move 
out of town got " liberty to exchange his 
howse lott " for land in " anie place east- 
ward of the towne fence ; " another, living 
on a lonesome spot " up the island," was 
granted "liberty to exchange three akers 
near the beache woods for land at the 

towne." 



178 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

towne." Exchanging and laying out lands 
by allotment formed the staple business of 
town meetings in the early part of the cen- 
tury. These acts were varied by hiring 
a schoolmaster at " three score pound cur- 
rent money for the yeare ; " by legislating 
about the commons, as : — 

No hogg shall go thereon without an 

order ; 

No man shall mow grass in the ram 

paster ; 

Bethiah Gardner shall mow grass at 

Coatue in compensation of her grass 

eaten up by sheepe at Pacamoka. 

Then came the affairs of the day, such 
as: John Macy "shall build a prison for 
the towne as soon as he can." Benjamin 
Waire " shall have that stream of water to 
damit up & sett a fulling mill on it." Wil- 
liam Gayer " shall take care of ye townes 
two Great Gunns that are at Wescoe," and 
John Swaine "shall take ye little Great 
Gunn to his home & fix it & cary it to 
Squam & there it is to abide." Some- 
times business was so much wanting at 
these meetings that little farces took its 

place ; 



THE TOWN'S DOINGS 179 

place ; as, to quote from the records of the 
year 1710, "George Gardner was chosen 
trustee by vote & was at ye same time put 
out agalne." 

The welfare of the large flocks of sheep 
pasturing on the commons always inter- 
ested town meetings. Men had been ap- 
pointed " to rayse the towne to look up the 
sheepe when lickly hood of bad wether 
ensuing ; " and it was ordered that " if 
any man refuse to goe when he is cal'd on 
he shall forfeit five shillings ; " pens had 
been made to shelter the sheep in winter, 
and " five loads of hay " put in each pen ; 
the town meeting had also provided that 
" the sheepe shall be kept by three shep- 
herds all the yeare." Nevertheless, sheep 
farmers suffered losses from Indians who 
stole their lambs, dogs that killed them, 
and hogs that ate them. The Indians 
were punished, all swine were impounded, 
and at last, in an exasperating moment, the 
town meeting ordered " that all the Dogs 
upon the Island of Nantucket be forth- 
with killed ; " an order which must have 

struck 



l8o QUAINT NANTUCKET 

struck sorrow to those who loved their 
dogs. 

The ancient rights to pasturage for 
sheep are disclosed in a town record of 
the year 1689, from which it appears that 
each owner of one share in the island 
estate had the right to pasture on the 
commons 540 sheep ; that it was then a 
custom to count the sheep at the shearing 
time, and every owner having more than 
540 to a share was to pay to the town two 
shillings per head for the excess. Failing 
to do this, the surplus sheep were con- 
demned as " damage feasant " and sold. 

There appeared on the island a plague 
of rats, which annoyed the sheep as a 
plague of flies annoyed the Egyptians. 
Year after year the town meeting ordered 
that " every person who shall kill a Rat 
and bring his head to the towne treasurer 
shall Receive for every such Rat a six- 
pence." To prevent rat-hunters from cheat- 
ing the treasurer with the heads of rats 
that were young enough to be harmless, 
it was stipulated in the town's order that 
"the said Rat shall be so full grown as 

to 



THE TOWN'S DOINGS i8l 

to be all over covered with hair." Said 
the old player, " I smell a rat ! " And so 
said the Nantucket boys — " I smell a rat!" 
— as they scurried here and there to earn 
the sixpence reward. 

In the year 1723, the town meeting 
found it necessary to establish " a con- 
stables watch in the night season, for sup- 
pressing disorders and breaches of the 
peace." The streets of the prospering 
town had become a night resort of " In- 
dians negroes and other suspected per- 
sons," as the record says, who molested 
such inhabitants as walked abroad, and 
disturbed the repose of those who slept. 
A long wharf had been built into the 
harbor from the end of the main street, 
and this was the trysting-place of these 
idlers of the night. The town resolved 
" to suppress " the vagrants ; and it or- 
dered that " if they shall be found upon 
the wharfe & about towne after nine of 
the clock at night, they shall be taken up 
and carried before a Justice." This action 
was effectual for a time ; but at last the 
constables proved to be so incompetent 

to 



l82 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

to preserve the peace that a town meet- 
ing chose sixteen stout men to be a night 
watch, and paid them for their services. 
Their duty, as it is written in the town 
records, was " to walk the town in the 
night season, and on the first day of the 
week, to suppress the growing disorder 
of the young people and all others that 
act inconsistently with the principles of 
morality and virtue." To aid the sixteen 
men in their task of suppressing young 
people in the night season, and promoting 
morality and virtue, a town meeting be- 
sought the legislature at Boston "to pass 
an act to put a stop to masters and mis- 
tresses of houses entertaining minors at 
unseasonable hours of the night, in Drink- 
ing and Carousing and Frolicking contrary 
to the mind of their parents." This was 
a sad commentary on the nature of family 
ties in Nantucket, and also on the effects 
of that sober-sided Quakerism which ruled 
the town, and had caused the streets and 
houses of public entertainment to be the 
only places in which young men could 
meet young women, or boys and girls 

could 



THE TOWN'S DOINGS 183 

could find a vent for the natural exuber- 
ance of their spirits. They were driven 
into the streets by the extreme severities 
of the Quaker home, in which the most 
harmless of joyful amusements could not 
be tolerated. 

Having thus published the fact that Nan- 
tucket was a place of immoralities, the 
parents went satisfied to bed, but not 
until they had voted in town meeting that 
the sixteen night - watchmen " shall fre- 
quently give the time of night and looks 
of the weather and other Remarks worthy 
of notice in a clear and audible voice." 
Thenceforth, as I may fancy, the mid- 
night cry of the watchmen was : " Twelve 
o'clock ; wind no'theast ; bloin' fresh ; no 
young people in sight ! " 

Although the principles of truth were 
supposed to influence all the acts of this 
Quaker town, there was enough of human 
nature existing to prevent honesty from 
being its prevailing policy. So the town 
meeting had to appoint " Sam Ray to view 
and prevent frauds in meats exposed for 
sale by the barrel ; " and John Macy " to 

inspect 



184 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

inspect wood that is for sale & see that 
there be no deceit therein ; " the inspector 
was to have "one penny per cord to be 
paid by him that sells the wood." 

The Quaker inhabitants had become so 
numerous that their principles were asserted 
in town meetings on every occasion. In 
the year 1 740, when it was proposed " to 
build some fortification to prevent an 
enemy from coming into the harbour," 
the Quakers defeated the resolution. They 
would not consent that the town guns be 
put in order, but they were willing " that 
the charge for drums and colours for the 
military foot company shall be defreyed 
out of the treasury ; " and this was re- 
corded as " the mind of the towne." 

When smallpox appeared on the island 
it created much alarm. After a long de- 
bate in town meeting it was voted, " by 68 
voices against 41," to "suffer Inoculation 
of the small pox to be practiced." It was 
then voted " that a House be built near the 
shore for the reception of persons infected." 
The Quaker church was hostile to this 
movement. All its members who allowed 

themselves 



THE TOWN'S DOINGS 185 

themselves to be inoculated were dis- 
owned, unless they abased themselves in 
public meeting by a confession that they 
were sorry for it. Next year the church 
was rallied to town meeting, and it was 
voted "that Innoculation shall not be per- 
mitted in this town." The Quakers pro- 
tested when the legislature billeted upon 
Nantucket some of the French prisoners 
who had been brought to Boston from 
Acadia. These people of a foreign tongue 
and a foreign faith were very unacceptable, 
and the town's representative was directed 
to petition for their immediate removal 
from the island. 

In the year 1746, the town built a light- 
house on Brant Point, the owners of ves- 
sels agreeing to maintain the light. The 
light-house was burned down, rebuilt, and 
then blown down by what was described as 
"a violent gust of wind." The first loss 
of the light reminded the inhabitants of 
the island that they needed " an engine to 
quench fire," and the town sent ^18 ster- 
ling to London to buy one. It proved to 
be too small ; and, after experimenting 

with 



I 



1 86 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

with a second one, the town sent ;^6o 
sterling to London to buy a large fire- 
engine. The selectmen were then ordered 
to provide five dozen leather buckets and 
six ladders " as cheap as they can," and to 
appoint men to run with the machine. 
For public safety, all powder was ordered 
to be removed "from the body of the 
town;" and at the same time it was voted 
" that the ends of all the cows horns be 
sawed off." 

The court of common pleas, sitting in 
the town, had much to do with the daily 
life of the people. It licensed John Coffin 
" to sell Tea and Coffy," and William 
Rotch, with his brother Joseph (who had 
been complained of by a licensed retailer), 
to sell " Speritious Lickers " out of doors 
only. It recorded the certificates of a jus- 
tice of the peace that Stephen Norton had 
sworn "one profane oath," and also "one 
profane curs." It tried many suits of 
sailors, against owners and masters of 
whaling-vessels, for more pay than they 
had received. Those who had been pre- 
sented by the grand jury " for not attending 

Public 



THE TOWN'S DOINGS 187 

Public Worship for more than one month" 
it fined ten shilHngs each and costs of 
court, five shillings and sixpence. It tried 
a breach of promise case, in which the 
woman claimed damages of two hundred 
pounds from a sailor; but, as twelve 
pounds four shillings and seven and a 
quarter pence were all the property that 
could be found belonging to the man, the 
court gave judgment to the woman for 
that sum, and she was satisfied. 

They alternately voted to build a work- 
house and not to build one. Meanwhile 
the town paid Silas Paddock " for nursing 
a squaw thirteen weeks at 1 2 shillings per 
week;" and ordered "that the negro wo- 
man Hager be considered one of the towns 
Poor." They repaired the old prison," 
and built a new one with a fence around 
it ; ordered that oysters shall not be ex- 
ported ; and subscribed ^50 " towards de- 
freying the cost of a fulling mill for dress- 
ing of cloth." They refused to send 
delegates to the convention at Faneuil 
Hall, called by inhabitants of Boston to 
protest against the revenue acts of Great 

Britain ; 



l88 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Britain ; and, that smuggling might be 
made easy, they refused to petition " the 
commissioners of his majesties customs to 
send a collector of Duties to this town." 
They asked the legislature of the year 1770 
to build a light-house " on the sandy point 
of Nantucket," and to annex Muskekit 
and Gravelly islands to the county. The 
event of the next year was the delinquency 
of Thomas Arthur, collector of taxes, who 
was put in jail, and refused to deliver the 
tax-books, or any extract from them, until 
he was let out. And so the routine of the 
town's doings went on, in the usual way, 
until the War of the Revolution began. 
The island had been the centre of a con- 
trabrand trade between Holland and New 
York, by which gunpowder had been 
smuggled into the colonies. There was 
now an end of it. The Earl of Dartmouth 
wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Golden, of 
New York, in September, 1774: "My in- 
formation is that the ship Polly, bound 
from Amsterdam to Nantucket, has among 
other articles received on board, no less a 

quantity 



THE TOWN'S DOINGS 189 

quantity than three hundred pounds weight 
of Gunpowder." 

When the war began, Nantucket con- 
tained upwards of five thousand inhabit- 
ants. They were a conservative and cal- 
culating people, who felt that the benefits 
received from the protecting power of 
England were of more importance than 
the political restraints which she imposed 
upon them. They held a town meeting, 
and decided that the only safe line of con- 
duct for them to pursue was to take no 
part in the contest, and to give no cause of 
offense to either of the contending forces. 
Their isolated situation was made difficult 
to control by the hostile conduct of a few 
restless persons who had nothing to lose 
by the war, and who hoped to gain some- 
thing by thwarting the pacific plans of their 
neighbors. In April, 1779, the island was 
threatened by an invasion of the enemy. 
Immediately a town meeting was convened 
to consult on measures for safety, and it was 
decided to send three Quakers — William 
Rotch, Benjamin Tupper, and Samuel Star- 
buck — to the British commanders at New- 
port 



IQO QUAINT NANTUCKET 

port and New York, to prevail on them 
" to avert the impending stroke," and " to 
put a stop to depredations on the island." 
A memento of this expedition is to be 
found in the account book of William 
Rotch, from which I copy : — 

— 1779- 8 mo. 17 day Rec'd of Wil- 
liam Rotch one hundred and seventy one 
pounds, on acct of the towne, in full for 
1 1 weeks & 3 days wages in sloop Speed- 
well to Newport & New York as a Flag 
of Truce — John Cartwright. 
On return of the sloop from this success- 
ful venture, a town meeting voted " that all 
the inhabitants will remain in a quiet and 
peaceable condition in the future, as being 
the basis of the Indulgence granted by 
the British commanders." In the following 
September, learning that an invasion was 
threatened from Martha's Vineyard, the 
islanders voted that they " disown every 
hostile proceeding towards the British 
forces and Servants of the King." But this 
declaration did not save the island of Nan- 
tucket from many depredations by royalists 
and refugees who destroyed the property 

of 



THE TOWN'S DOINGS 191 

of the inhabitants, and sometimes made it 
difficult for them to obtain even the neces- 
saries of life. 

As soon as peace came, the whale-ship 
Bedford, which had been lying in the har- 
bor since the war began, was fitted for sea 
with a cargo of sperm oil, and sailed for 
London flying the new ensign of the 
United States. 



VIII 

Odds and Ends of Nantucket Life 

After the war was over, the town was 
in a distressed and turbulent condition. Its 
records make frequent mention of " Disor- 
ders in the Night by Boys and Servants ; " 
of " unruly Boys and others Disturbing 
the Peace ; " of " noise and Tumultuous 
Assemblies in the streets." This state of 
affairs was so serious that at one time 
sixty-four men offered their services as a 
night patrol for a year, and at another 
time forty men volunteered for a similar 
service. Records of the justices' court re- 
flect in a slight degree the condition of 
the town at this time. An Indian, com- 
plained of for " assaulting & striking Obed 
Hussey Esq'," was condemned " to be whipt 
ten stripes on the Naked Back." Three 
boys, who " stove off the boards of Jere- 
miah Colemans house in the Night sea- 
son," 



ODDS AND ENDS OP NANTUCKET LIFE 193 

son," had each to pay five shillings and the 
costs of court. Hannah Russell and Hep- 
zibeth Coffin confessed to the justice that 
" on Saturday night they did strike Phebe 
Glover for which they are exceeding sorry," 
but each had to pay a fine of five shillings. 
A cordwainer was condemned to pay;^i 
1 6s. 4d. because he "did in a violent man- 
ner take hold of a bucket that was in the 
hand of Abigail Bunker & stove it to pieces 
& further assaulted the aforesaid Abigail 
in a violent manner by pushing her against 
the Law and Peace of the Commonwealth." 
Two women, who, as the justice wrote, " not 
having the Fear of God before their eyes 
& being instigated by the Devil did wick- 
edly with force & arms commit an assault 
upon each other," were condemned " to 
receive nine stripes on the naked back." 

There was other business in the court 
besides the punishment of disorders. An 
Indian woman, accused of stealing " about 
four doz. ears of green corn of the value 
of four shillings," was condemned " to pay 
three fold the value of the corn you stole 
the cost of Court & a fine of five shillings or 

be 



194 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

be whipt five stripes on the Naked Back." 
As she could not pay, she took the whip- 
ping. Daniel Johnson, accused of " stealing 
a Quantity of Iron Bolts," was condemned 
to pay " three fold the value of the Iron you 
stole the cost of court & a fine of ten shil- 
lings or be whipt ten stripes." Out of the 
judgment money paid into court, the jus- 
tice took to his own pocket the amount of 
a small debt which the prisoner owed to 
him for oysters. John Crandall, for stealing 
" sundry Silk Handkerchiefs & a Razor," 
was condemned to pay three times the 
value of the stolen goods and the costs 
of court, amounting to ;^3 15s. lod. He 
confessed inability to pay the judgment, and 
was sentenced to serve the plaintiff " four 
months in compensation of this sum." 
John Smith stole a flannel shirt. His sen- 
tence was, to pay three times the value of 
the shirt, or go to prison. To this sum the 
justice added a sixpence which John Smith 
owed to him " for trowsers." 

Nantucket society was dependent upon 
itself for social amusements. There was 
no theatre on the island, dancing was ta- 
booed 



ODDS AND ENDS OF NANTUCKET LIFE 195 

booed by the Quakers, and the circus never 
came. I have the manuscript of a play 
written in the town and acted before pri- 
vate assembhes, which interested its play- 
ers and its audiences because the simple 
plot was based on incidents of the time, 
— a hundred years ago. The heroine, a 
young coquette of Nantucket, is engaged 
to be married to a sailor-boy who is at sea. 
A young man of insinuating manners, who 
is supposed to be wealthy, comes from New 
York and seeks the heroine's acquaintance. 
In the first scene of the play he enters 
a parlor, where the coquette is waiting to 
receive him, and the following conversation 
occurs : — 

" Madam, I am your most obedient 
humble servant. I hope I have the pleas- 
ure of seeing your ladyship very well this 
evening." 

" Will thee please to sit down, sir } " 
(She offers him the easy chair. He seats 
himself in it.) 

" I thank you, madam ; this becomes 
me very well. Here is room for us both. 

Sit 



ig6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Sit down here, if you please ; I want to 
have a little chat with you." 

"I find thee very capable of that, sir ; 
but I '11 take another chair, if thee please." 

" Madam, you '11 excuse me. I have 
business of the utmost importance ; and as 
my stay here must be short, I may as well 
come to the point at once as to be very 
ceremonious about it. I am not fond of 
long courtships." 

" Why, sir, thee alarms me ! — talk of 
courting ? " 

" Really, madam, I am in love with you, 
deeply in love with you, and I have taken 
this opportunity to convince you of it. I 
am sure you will pity me and heal the 
wound that bleeds. It 's in your power to 
do it." 

" I must have time to think of that, sir. 
I have already passed my word, and — and 
my honor to a sailor-boy whom I expect 
soon. Shall I be treating him right to 
deceive him .? " 

" Oh, tell not of a sailor-boy ! Not one 
in ten of them, who goes to sea with the 
most sacred promises from his fair one, 

but 



ODDS AND ENDS OP NANTUCKET LIFE igy 

but expects to be deceived. The sea 
bleaches his heart, and he cares not for 
his girl at home." 

" Why, sir, thee seems to understand 
something about it ; and I do believe 
what thee sayest to be partly true. In- 
deed, if I should deceive my sailor-boy! — 
Well, he is not the first to whom I have 
made solemn protestations ! Oh dear ! 
Oh dear ! I feel faint ! " (She falls back 
in her chair. He offers a glass of wine.) 

" Take a little of this, my dear, and you 
will feel better. It is the closeness of 
the room. Let me open a window. (She 
drinks the wine.) Dear madam, I am dis- 
tressed for you. You look so pale, yet 
there is beauty in your paleness." 

" Oh, I feel better now. I never had 
such a disagreeable feeling as that. But 
it has gone. And can thee think it right, 
after such a promise to him, to encourage 
thee?" 

"Oh, fie! I shouldn't suppose that 
promise would have such an effect upon 
you, my dear ; for you say it is not the 
first time, and habit is a second nature." 

He 



igS QUAINT NANTUCKET 

He marries the coquette, having ob- 
tained the approval of her mother, who is 
a matchmaker by nature and wants her 
daughter to have a wealthy husband and 
a quick wedding. Tradition tells the se- 
quel of the story of the play, — that the 
husband was a profligate, that she left him 
and returned to her father's house, that 
the profligate died, and she married the 
sailor-boy. 

I have the order book of David Greene, 
the fashionable tailor of Nantucket from 
the year 1787 to 1794. I copy a few of 
his orders, because they give a picture of 
the customary dress of the people at that 
time : William Brown is charged for " mak- 
ing a Cloak for Eliza & a Hood with 
Silk & hooks & eyes. A pair of denim 
Breeches for thyself & mending thy snuff 
coloured Coat & 8 buttons for Velvet 
Breeches & piecing side seams of thy Sa- 
gathee Waistcoat & mending a Baze waist- 
coat & new kneeing a pair of Breeches ; " 
Nathaniel Starbuck, making "a seal skin 
Waist-coat with leather pockets ; " William 
Hussey, making "a velvet Jacket, and a 

Cloak 



ODDS AND ENDS OP NANTUCKET LIFE 199 

Cloak for thy Daugh"" Abigail ; " Peter Pol- 
lard, " to 9 Buttons & twist for Eliza's 
pocket ; " Sylvanus Macy, " making Velvet 
Breeches with buckram in the knees ; " Dr. 
Roland Gilson, " making nankeen Breeches 
and black Satin Breeches and for 12 large 
Deathead buttons on Statute Coat ; " Dr. 
John Bartlett, " making blue satin Waist- 
coat with 8 buttons ; " Peter Barney, " mak- 
ing buck skin breeches for boy ; " Daniel 
Starbuck, " making a Suit of Superfine 
Broadcloth & repairing & new lining a 
pair of Breeches and making a Waistcoat 
of cotton denim ; " Benjamin Rotch, for 
"14 large Basket buttons on satute coat 
& I doz. large Deathead buttons and a 
seating to thy Breeches ; " Samuel Rod- 
man, "making Velvet jacket & waistcoat 
for thy Son Thomas & twilled Velvet 
Breeches with 3 large & 4 small ivory 
buttons for thyself & a pair of leather 
Drawers ; " William Macy, " making coat 
with 5 pockets & working new set of but- 
ton holes to thy Satute Coat & mak- 
ing waistcoat &: breeches of Florentine ; " 
Oliver Spencer, " making Velvet Breeches 

for 



200 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

for son Tristram & thread for Tristrams 
trowsers & Velvet Breeches for thyself & 
a Great Coat with 14 small & 8 large but- 
tons ; " William Rotch, " making a waist- 
coat of Bengali, setting new breast buttons 
to frock jacket & making a great coat for 
Cesar;" William Rotch, Jr., "a Greatcoat 
with Velvet collar ; " Thomas Rotch, " turn- 
ing thy coat & making 2 pair Drawers ; " 
Simeon Russell, " repairing a dark brown 
coat, turning Broadcloth coat with hooks 
& eyes for ye same & turning thy Saga- 
thee waistcoat ; " Captain John Cartwright, 
" a calico jacket & a blue coat ; " Seth 
Cartwright, " making black Satin Breeches, 
and turning a coat, & making a Cloak for 
Priscilla." These tailors' orders tell us 
that there was then, as now, a standard of 
fashion in clothing to which every one 
tried to conform. 

As the streets of the town were not 
lighted, the selectmen proposed that house- 
holders should set up lanterns if the town 
would supply oil for their lighting. The 
proposal did not meet with favor, because 
sperm oil was considered to be as good as 

money, 



ODDS AND ENDS OF NANTUCKET LIFE 20r 

money, and of course it was an extravagant 
waste to burn money in the street. Those 
who had barrels of oil stored on the wharves 
held them in such value that they hired 
men to watch them, lest a barrel be stolen. 
I copy from William Rotch's account 
book : " Paid Wm Peak for watching oil 
on the wharf los. 8d." At one time there 
was no oil to be had for Brant Point light- 
house ; and when, in the year 1785, the 
selectmen were directed to hire " some 
person to keep the light-house," they asked 
the town meeting, " How is Oyl to be pro- 
vided in the future ? " The Point was a 
cause of constant expense to the town. 
They built there a " Hedge Fence to pre- 
vent the sand blowing off." When north- 
erly winds blew, the sand buried the fence, 
and the selectmen were at a loss, as they 
said, " How to secure Brant Point from 
blowing into the Harbour." 

It was not *' agreeable to the mind of 
the towne " to pay direct taxes. In the year 
1784, it instructed its representative to the 
legislature " strictly & positively to bear 
Testimony against the State Tax ; " this 

voice 



202 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

voice was the voice of Quakerism. In the 
year 1787, it was "voted that no money be 
raised by tax for this year, but if any be 
wanted the Town will borrow of William 
Rotch." In its thriftiness the town refused 
to send delegates to the convention at Bos- 
ton in January of that year ; and the next 
year it refused to send a representative 
to the legislature. When it elected Alex- 
ander Gardner " to serve as Representa- 
tive," it directed that he " do not attend the 
General Court except when his presence 
there shall be thought necessary by the 
selectmen." The town objected to all 
unnecessary expenses ; and when business 
involving an outlay of money was to be 
proposed at town meeting, the attendance 
sometimes numbered three hundred men, 
of whom the majority were savers rather 
than spenders of money. In a meeting at 
which the attendance was small, it was 
voted "to build piers on the back flats." 
At the next meeting there was a crowd, 
and the vote of the previous meeting was 
reconsidered ; then the question about 
building piers on the back flats was put 

again 



ODDS AND ENDS OP NANTUCKET LIFE 203 

again in due form, and was "passed in the 
negative," 250 men voting against it and 
43 in its favor. 

In the beginning of this century a peti- 
tion by the town for the removal of Nan- 
tucket bar was sent to Congress. It stated 
that " the whale fishery commenced with 
vessels from 30 to 50 tons burthen upon 
the American coast, and so continued 
until the year 1753, since which the whales 
have left the coast and we have gone fur- 
ther in pursuit of them ; and since the year 
1790 we have had to follow them to the 
Pacific and Indian oceans — voyages of 
eighteen months to two years, with ships 
of 200 and 300 tons." The petition said 
that " the bar will destroy this business ; " 
that it " lies about two miles from the har- 
bor, has had only about nine feet of water 
over it at full sea, and within a year it has 
shoaled nearly one foot. We have already 
sustained considerable loss by our vessels 
grounding on the bar, and it is with much 
difficulty and expense that we can get our 
ships out of the harbor." 

The town voted " that Isaac Coffin Esq'. 

be 



204 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

be the bearer " of this petition to Congress, 
but the people wanted to know what the 
cost was to be, before he started ; and so 
they appointed three men " to contract 
with Isaac Coffin Esq^ what he shall have 
for his services in carrying the petition." 
Then they voted " that Gideon Gardner 
shall accompany him to assist him, and 
that the Town shall be at no Expence for 
his service." 

The economically planned petition pro- 
duced no result. The harbor bar remained, 
as an obstacle to the commerce of the 
port, for nearly a hundred years longer, 
when two jetties, constructed by the United 
States government, began to deepen, and 
are still deepening, the sea that flows over 
Nantucket Bar. 



IX 

Nantuckef s School of Philosophers 

It was an insurance office in a brick 
house that stood near the wharves at the 
foot of the main street, and is standing 
there now. It was also a place of resort 
for learning what news had come from 
the sea. The news was written in a book 
lying on the public table, whose title, " Ma- 
rine Journal," had been carefully drawn 
with a pen on the outside of its front cover. 
The book is dated in the years 1804 ^J^d 
1805. It is a mirror of its times. 

The office was open every day in the 
week. Every morning a secretary wrote 
in the book the direction of the wind and 
the character of the weather, as if he were 
at sea ; then he wrote the news of the day, 
— concerning vessels entering the harbor, 
vessels departing, vessels anchored " in the 
Cod of the Bay," vessels passing the island, 

vessels 



2o6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

vessels ashore, Nantucket ships spoken at 
sea, the barrels of oil on board them, the 
disasters that had happened to them. 

Turning the leaves of the book, I notice 
how neatly the items of news are written ; 
how the importance of certain events is 
indicated by wider spaces between the 
lines ; how the corners of pages had been 
made thinner by the stamp of brown 
thumbs. Its paper covers, tattooed with 
a variety of pen-marks, initial letters of 
unknown names, reckonings in figures, 
sketches of a steering-wheel, a compass 
card, a harpoon, and mazes of thoughtless 
scrawls, tell me of the dozy hours spent by 
men who came in to read the book, and to 
lounge in the ofHce chairs as if resting on 
their oars, while expecting some waif of 
news to come ashore, or to be brought by 
a mail-packet from the continent. After 
the news had been recorded in the Jour- 
nal, it was given to the town -crier, who 
went through the streets publishing it " by 
sound of the trumpet and the publicque 
cry." 

These records were reminiscent to the 

marine 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHERS 207 

marine philosophers who frequented the 
office. Some of them had retired from 
the sea to a quiet life ashore ; some were 
yet sea-rovers, waiting for their ships to be 
got ready for a cruise ; some were heroes 
of hazardous deeds, having about them 
that air of authority which comes from a 
habit of command. When they read in 
the Journal that the ship Edward had 
arrived from the coast of Peru, reporting 
the ships with which she spake since she 
"stowed down her oil and put away for 
home," and that the ship Rose, with teas 
and silks of Canton, had been heard 
from homeward bound to Nantucket, the 
thoughts of these marine philosophers 
surveyed " the world from China to Peru." 
And, as they talked over the news, they 
told of strange voyages of which they had 
been a large part. And yet they were not 
adrift from the facts of their present time ; 
for when the Journal reported the arrival 
of a sloop from Wood's Hole,^ loaded with 

firewood 

1 For more than two hundred years, Wood's Hole was the 
name of a village and two adjoining harbors of Barnstable 
County, Massachusetts. In April, 1702, Judge Sewall wrote in 

his 



208 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

firewood for which the master was de- 
manding ten dollars a cord, they had opin- 
ions that the price was too high considering 
the condition of the spermaceti-oil market. 
Woven in with the strands of marine 
news were things belonging to the shore 
life of the islanders. For example : — 

Tuesday, December 25th, 1804. In 
the morning small wind, westerly, and 
snow. The President of this Office was 
hurt by a horse at 9 o'clock this morn- 
ing. The Faculty consider it not dan- 
gerous. Seth Baker has arrived with the 
Cranberries. 

Seth and his cranberries had been ex- 
pected a day or two sooner; perhaps he 
was detained at Hyannis by a head wind. 
As his arrival is noised through the town, 
housekeeping women are hastening to the 

wharf, 

his diary that he embarked for the island of Martha's Vineyard 
in " Mr. Robinson's boat at little Wood's hole " (meaning the 
smaller harbor). In the year 1875, the summer residents of 
Wood's Hole caused the name to be changed — for peculiar 
reasons — to Wood's Holl. In May, 1895, the United States 
Board, which is empowered to decide and fix the proper ortho- 
graphy of geographic names, declared that the proper form of 
this name is Wood's Hole. 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHERS 2 09 

wharf, carrying baskets and pails to be 
filled with cranberries for their Christmas 
dinners. 

Saturday Feb'y i6th 1805. Wind 
west by South, snow — arrived Sloop 
Charles from Bermuda. News of the 
Sloop Planter coming through woods 
hole struck a rock & sunk. Arrived 
Lively Packet with seven Mails & Pas- 
sengers — from the papers get accounts 
of Ship John & James spoke Dec 9 — 
Latt 30 South — Long 35. Arrived 
two wood Sloops, want 10 dollars per 
Cord for wood and' cannot in our opin- 
ion get ^8. — At last the captain got $6. 
Monday March 4th. Wind northerly 
— pleasant weather. Arrived several 
coasters; the packet with two mails 
from New Bedford. The Harlequin was 
off Isle of May Dec. 20th. Congress 
closes their session this day. 
To-day, loungers in the insurance office 
are discussing the adjourning Congress 
and Thomas Jefferson, who becomes for 
a second time the President of the United 
States. They are saying that the political 

horizon 



2IO QUAINT NANTUCKET 

horizon is cloudy, for England is claiming 
a right of search on the high seas, and her 
frigates are boarding Nantucket ships. 

Tuesday April 30th. Fine Spring 
weather. Wind Southerly. Some small 
coasters arrived. Sailed the Leander 
packet in persuit of the Revenue Cutter 
which was run away with last night sup- 
pos'd to be by a man that came passen- 
ger with Silas Coleman in the Leander 
from Hudson. 

After spring had begun to bloom on 
the island, " small coasters " were arriving 
daily with various kinds of merchandise 
for tradesmen, and for the outfit of ships ; 
with grain, hay, salt, firewood, fruit, and 
vegetables, to be sold. Then, in the busy 
streets and above the clatter made by 
mechanics, truckmen, and the town-crier, 
was heard the shrill call of the huckster : 
" Har-war-che-e-e ! ar-fine-onions — beets — 
turnips — apples ! Har-war-che-e-e ! Who 
buys ? " As there was no newspaper on 
the island, the night-watchman, tramping 
his rounds, became an advertising herald, 
announcing with the hours the wares that 

are 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 2H 

are to be sold by his customers to-morrow. 
Hear him: "Twelve o'clock and all is well. 
Jabez Arey has beans to sell." 

Tuesday June i8th. Wind southerly. 
Arrived schooner Betsy from Cape de 
Verde, several coasters, and the mail 
packet from New Bedford with a num- 
ber of Passengers. This is second 
Shearing Day. 

It is a holiday on Nantucket. The east- 
ern and western flocks of sheep, num- 
bering together nearly ten thousand, were 
washed in Miacomet Pond on Friday and 
Saturday of last week, and on Monday and 
Tuesday of this week they are publicly 
counted and shorn. When this Marine 
Journal was written, it was the cruel custom 
to leave the sheep without a shepherd 
through the entire year, and without a 
shelter of any kind, not even so much as 
that of Jonah's gourd. In the tempes- 
tuous winters they were abandoned by 
their owners to all the severities of cold 
and hunger, compelled to get their food 
from a frozen soil, or to starve. During 
the storms they naturally huddled together 

to 



212 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

to get warmth from each other, and hun- 
dreds of them were often crowded into the 
freezing ocean from a bluff that bounded 
one side of the common pasture. This 
treatment of sheep was in painful contrast 
with the care which flocks received from 
their owners during the earlier periods of 
Nantucket/ 

In the summer season the pastoral scene 
was more pleasing; the large flocks feeding 
upon the new grass made a conspicuous 
picture in the landscape. Their compan- 
ions were golden plovers, whose whistle 
could be heard all over the commons. If a 
gunner flushed the birds, they kept within 
protection of the sheep, winding in and 
out among them until they were beyond 
reach of a shot, when away they flew over 
the sea. 

These sheep-shearing holidays, with their 
feasts and festivities, lasted about forty 
years longer. Feuds arose between land- 
owners and sheep-owners ; sheep running 
at large were impounded ; lawsuits ensued ; 
the last sheep was driven from the com- 
mons; 

^See page 179. 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 213 

mons ; and the holidays, to which home- 
ward - bound whalemen looked forward, 
hoping to arrive in time to enjoy them, 
came to an end. Let us return to the 
Journal. 

Thursday, July 4th. Independant 
Day. Wind Westerly. Dry dusty hot 
weather. Sailed Maria packet for New 
Bedford and returned, was gone about 
13 hours. Brought a mail. Arrived a 
schooner from Mistic with Hats, Cotton 
and tar. 

There are no sounds of fire-crackers in 
the Journal, and no indications that the 
fourth of July was observed as a holiday 
on the island. 

Now and then a real waif was brought 
in from the sea. The Journal of Monday, 
May 20, says : — 

Arrived ship Eliza, Capt Chase, from 
Patagonia and the Brazils. The follow- 
ing letter was found in a junk bottol 
taken up about a league to the south of 
Nomans Land on the 9th of May. The 
bottol had about 6 oz of lead balls in it, 
was cork'd & seal'd tight, had a small 

staff 



214 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

staff lashed to the neck and a piece of 
silk handkerchief for a flag on it : — 

French National Ship Silene, 
April 10, 1805. 

One of his Britanic Majestys subjects 
confined a prisoner on board this ship 
embraces this mode of communicating 
information to his countrymen (being 
the only means in his power) hoping that 
it may prove successful. If it should 
even fall into the hands of our american 
well wishers they no doubt will make it 
public — That a valuable Spanish ship 
with an immense quantity of Specie 
would leave the Havana about the first 
of this month. Such a fine prize is cer- 
tainly worth the attention of any of his 
Majesty's Ships on this station looking 
after. The Spanish vessels force is only 
16 guns and but indifferently equipt. 

Thomas Burk. 
This letter, picked up at sea and brought 
to Nantucket, is a reminiscence of the 
empire of the first Napoleon. At its date 
France and Spain were allied in war 
against England, a crisis of which was 

reached 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 215 

reached in Lord Nelson's victory at Traf- 
algar, the 2ist of October, 1805. Other 
reminiscences of the war appear in the 
Journal's news from Nantucket ships : — 
By a letter from Obed Chase, dated 
August 3d, he informs that he took 
38 English Prisoners from the Cape of 
Good Hope, & for landing them at St. 
Helena was to have 6000 rix dollars & 
was to return to the Cape of Good 
Hope. 

Capt Ransom Jones left St. Helena 
with 200 tons Sperm oil under convoy 
of ship Calcutta of 64 guns for London. 
The ship Fox touched at St. Helena 
from Timor, with 1200 bbls of oil. 
Capt Shubel Worth died out of the 
F0X.1 

The Journal makes note of wintry days 
on Nantucket when the island was swept 
by gales and was locked in ice ; when the 
moors were covered with snow, the springs 
were frozen, and there were wrecks along 
the shore. 

Monday Dec", if^. Wind north 

west 

1 See page 164. 



2l6 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

west cold. Arriv'd Dispatch Packet 
with a mail & sloop from Oldtown with 
Oile out of ship Edward 4 months from 
coast of Peru. Ship Brothers went to 
sea this day. Had accounts of the Ship 
Rose which left Canton the 2^ of June 
Macoa Rhodes the 7th of June & was 
spoke with 18 days out in the China 
Seas. Arrived a sloop from Rhode 
Island with hollow meat, fruit and Veg- 
etables. Afternoon a snow storm. 

Sunday December 30th. Wind north- 
west blowing Strong, considerable Ice 
in the Harbour. Brig Eliza Capt. Mat- 
thew Dole of Newburyport from Marti- 
nico ashore at Low Beach. 

Sunday January 6th. the Harbour 
froze up — wind northwest cold — abun- 
dance of Snow. 

Tuesday January 8th — the Harbour 

still froze, a ship is aground between 

Muskeket & the Vineyard. 

During winter seasons the island is often 

inaccessible for a time. In the winter of 

1 780, the surrounding ocean was frozen as 

far away as the eye could reach, and all 

communication 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 217 

communication with the continent was cut 
off for forty days. The island was also 
blockaded by ice for forty days in the win- 
ter of 1837. During the winter of 1857, 
the mail steamboat was locked in the ice 
for thirty days, and in February, 1895, the 
ice blockade lasted nearly three weeks. 
And yet, sometimes, — 

" When February sun shines cold, 

There comes a day when in the air 
The wings of winter slow unfold 
And show the golden summer there." 

Friday February i" Wind southwest 
pleasant and warm for the season. Sailed 
schooner Brittania for St. Thomas and 
the salt islands. 

Monday February 4th. Snow storm. 
Arrived a Jabaca boat from Pasama- 
quada with only one man & one boy 
on board. Tuesday Feb. 5th. Wind 
north west verry cold, the harbour full 
of Ice. 

In the spring came home the ship Rose, 
long expected from China. She took a 
pilot from the south side of the island, and, 
passing through the west channel, dropped 

anchor 



2l8 QUAINT NANTUCKET . 

anchor at the bar, after a voyage of 273 
days from Canton, including 80 days from 
the Cape of Good Hope. Her arrival was 
an event in which every islander was inter- 
ested. Having discharged her cargo into 
lighters outside the bar, she came up to 
the wharf on the 19th of March to receive 
an ovation. The ship was built for Paul 
Gardner by island mechanics. James Cary 
was her captain ; Joseph W. Flasket was 
her chief mate; Uriah Swain was her su- 
percargo. She was manned by young men 
of the island, and she was the first ship that 
had sailed from Nantucket direct to China. 
I found her name writ large on the cover 
of the Journal, and I fancied that it was in- 
scribed during the days succeeding her re- 
turn, when the story of her long adventur- 
ous voyage was told at the table in the 
insurance office. She was fitted again for 
sea ; and the Journal says : — 

Sunday October 13th Wind in the 
morning Southerly with rain, then 
cleared up and hauled around to the 
westward. Sailed from the Bar the ship 
Rose for Canton. 

The 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHERS 219 

The Rose sailed on her second voyage 
to China, laden with general merchandise, 
Spanish dollars, and shark fins for Chinese 
epicures. I may imagine that on the morn- 
ing of her departure every black cat in 
the town was put under a tub, according 
to the popular superstition, so that a head 
wind should blow and detain the Rose a 
few days longer. But the trick was unsuc- 
cessful ; the ship sailed on a fair wind, 
leaving the Nantucket girls in tears. On a 
range of sand-hills south of the town stood 
four large windmills, of which only one is 
standing now. They were the first land- 
marks of the island to be discovered from 
far at sea, and they were the last things 
that faded from the sight of the Rose as 
she sailed away from her home. 

A traveler who visited Nantucket in the 
year 1810 speaks of its windmills, rope- 
walks, and two steeples as prominent ob- 
jects in the landscape. He says that there 
are generally fifteen or twenty ships in 
port, and twice or thrice that number of 
coasters, " presenting a lively scene as you 

enter 



220 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

enter from the sea." ^ To a traveler land- 
ing at the wharf the scene was interesting. 
All the townspeople who were at leisure 
have hastened down to learn what the 
packet has brought, and to scan the stran- 
gers who are coming ashore. If one of 
these has aught to distinguish him above 
his fellow-passengers, his description is re- 
ported from house to house, heads turn to 
gaze at him as he passes by, and bright 
eyes reconnoitre him through the window 
blinds. If he is a young man of affable 
manners, he will be welcomed by society, 
and will receive invitations to supper and 
to ride in a calash, a vehicle peculiar to 
Nantucket. This invitation expressed the 
utmost force of island hospitality. 

The governor of Massachusetts visited 
Nantucket in September, 1825, and was 
honored by what his secretary called " a 
solemn reception at the Insurance Office." 
Here he met the philosophers who made 
it their place of resort; shipowners and 

shipmasters, 

^ 111 the year 1822, Nantucket possessed 80 ships, 6 brigs, 16 
schooners, 59 sloops, 9 ropewalks, 36 candle factories, 7,266 in- 
habitants, 1,423 families, 911 houses. 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS' 221 

shipmasters, farmers and tradesmen, whose 
labors and savings had contributed to the 
wealth of the island. The visitors were 
introduced to men who had never been 
ashore on the continent of North America, 
although they had visited South America 
and the islands of every ocean. They con- 
versed with one, sixty years of age, who 
had seen no other horizon than that of the 
island. When the visitors observed that 
Nantucket, the largest holder of whale oil 
in the world, was the darkest corner of it 
at night, they were told that it would be 
an extravagance to consume, in street lan- 
terns, oil that had been procured for expor- 
tation. Oil was the source of the incomes 
of the inhabitants : if the market price was 
low, the town could not afford to use it 
for lighting streets ; if the price was high, 
the town could not afford to buy it. Thus 
the Quakers, who had given sombre colors 
to the town, had also given thrifty manners 
to the inhabitants. They could say, as said 
Henry the Fifth of England to his French 
princess: "We are the makers of manners, 

Kate, 



222 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Kate, and the liberty that follows our 
places stops the mouths of all find-faults." 

A venerable Quaker, named Micajah 
Coffin, addressed the visitors in the Latin 
language, which he had learned from his 
father Benjamin, who was a famous school- 
master of Nantucket in the last century. 
He was now ninety years old, yet of a robust 
personality ; and, as he rambled about the 
town, his custom was to heave to, when- 
ever he met a stranger, and hail : " Friend ! 
My name is Micajah CofHn. What is 
thine.?" 

The governor had come by stage-coaches 
from Boston, through Plymouth and Sand- 
wich, to Wood's Hole, whence he em- 
barked, with his companions, on the mail- 
packet sailing at sundown. The travelers 
were stowed into narrow bunks in the 
packet's cabin, where they snatched such 
sleep as was possible until two o'clock the 
next morning, when a sudden thud and a 
swashing of waters against the sides of the 
sloop brought them to their feet to ask 
what had happened. 

" All right ! " answered the skipper, 

shouting 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 223 

shouting down the companionway, " you 
jest lie still till morning. We 're aground 
on Nantucket Bar — that 's all." 

Notwithstanding its harbor bar, the 
town, containing in its prime nearly ten 
thousand inhabitants, was in touch with 
all parts of the world. Every ship that 
sailed away carried bags filled with letters 
to Nantucket men and boys who were 
" pursuing their gigantic game " in seas 
beyond Cape Horn and beyond the Cape 
of Good Hope. I copy some letter-bag 
announcements of the year 1839: — 

LETTER-BAGS FOR THE SOUTH SEAS. 

Ship Ploughboy, Capt Moses Brown, 
to sail about the 20th of June. Letter 
Bag at the store of G. H. Riddle, 71 
Main St. 

Ship Peru, Capt Joshua Coffin, to 
sail about ist of July. 

Ship Constitution, Capt Obed Rams- 
dell, to sail about ist of July. 

Ship Richard Mitchell, Capt. Wm 
H. Gardner, to sail about ist July. 

Letter 



2 24 QUAINT NANTUCKET 

Letter Bags at the store of J. Law- 
rence & Co. 

Once in a while an outward-bound letter- 
bag was brought back to Nantucket after 
a long cruise, those to whom its letters 
were addressed not having been met with 
on any ocean. Then appeared a public an- 
nouncement like this, of the year 1839: — 

RETURNED LETTERS. 

Letters returned by the Ship Montano 
are at the store of Obed Barney. 
The town w?'=5 now a hive of industry. 
Its streets wi ^)usy market-places ; the 
paving-stones ai^u the sand were rutted 
and stained by a constant travel of trucks 
loaded with hogsheads of oil and other 
merchandise, just arrived or just going 
away. Its five wharves were lined with 
whaling-ships getting ready to sail, and 
with merchant vessels loading or discharg- 
ing cargoes. All day long, coopers, spar- 
makers, riggers, boat-builders, and sail- 
makers were at work ; ironsmiths were 
forging harpoons, lances, and knives ; cord- 
age factories were turning out every kind 

of 



NANTUCKET'S SCHOOL OP PHILOSOPHERS 225 

of "standing and running rigging, bolt- 
rope, wormline, marline, spunyarn, whale 
lines, or any other article in their line, of 
a good quality and on favorable terms," as 
the announcements stated. Only when 
the Old South bell rang the hour of noon, 
and the streets were thronged with me- 
chanics going home to dinner, was there 
a lull in the noises of labor. 

At last the tide turned, and the pros- 
perity of Nantucket began to depart. Its 
sounds of industry became fainter; its 
wharves fell into decay its population 
decreased in numbei arine philoso- 

phers drifted away to uic unknown sea ; 
and when, in the year 1869, the last whal- 
ing-ship sailed from the harbor bar. Silence 
dropped his mantle on the town. 



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